Solving the discrete network design problem to optimality
The network design problem has various applications, such as construction of new links in transportation networks, topological design of computer communication networks and planning of empty freight car transportation on railways. The problem is a multicommodity minimal cost network flow problem with fixed costs on the arcs, i.e. a structured linear mixed-integer programming problem. We discuss solution methods for finding the exact optimal solution of the problem. Encouraging computational results are given for a Lagrangean heuristic within a branch-and-bound framework for the uncapacitated network design problem with single origins and destinations for each commodity (the simplest problem in this class, but still NP-hard). The Lagrangean heuristic uses a Lagrangean relaxation as subproblem, solving the Lagrange dual with subgradient optimization, combined with a primal heuristic (here the Benders subproblem) yielding primal feasible solutions.
- OSTI ID:
- 36136
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9408161--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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