We wish to connect the pairs of terminals on the boundary of a rectangular component, with the restriction that paths must be on the outside of the component and consist of line segments orthogonal to its sides sustaining minimum space between them. Paths may intersect at a point but may not overlap. The area of a rectangle with sides orthogonal to those of the component which encompasses the component and paths is to be minimized.
This thesis proposes a more efficient algorithm (O($t^2$)) than Lapaugh's (O($t^3$)), where t is the number of terminals.