Network planning and design

About: Network planning and design is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 12393 publications have been published within this topic receiving 229776 citations. The topic is also known as: network design.

Routing of Uncertain Traffic Demands

Abstract: Due to the success of the Internet and the diversity of communication applications, it is becoming increasingly difficult to forecast traffic patterns. To capture the traffic variations, we introduce a flexible model where traffic belongs to a polytope. We assume that the traffic demands between nodes can be carried on many paths, with respect to network resources. Moreover, to guarantee the network stability and to make the routing easy to implement, the proportions of traffic flowing through each path have to be independent of the current traffic demands. We show that a minimum-cost routing satisfying the previous properties can be efficiently computed by column and constraint generations. We then present several strategies related to certain algorithmic details. Finally, theoretical and computational studies show that this new flexible model can be much more economical than a classical deterministic model based on a given traffic matrix. This paper can be considered as a mathematical framework for a new flexible virtual private network service offer. It also introduces a new concept: the routing of a polytope.

Logistics systems : design and optimization

Abstract: Foreword.- Contributing Authors.- Preface.- The Network of Logistics Decisions.- Facility Location in Supply Chain Design.- Distribution Centres in Supply Chain Operations.- Operational Research Methods for Efficient Warehousing.- Models and Methods for Facilities Layout Design from an Applicability to Real-World Perspective.- The Design, Planning, and Optimization of Reverse Logistics Networks.- Models and Methods for Operations in Port Container Terminals.- Strategic Network Design for Motor Carriers.- New Heuristics for the Vehicle Routing Problem.- Routing Propane Deliveries.- Synchronized Production-Distribution Planning in the Pulp and Paper Industry.- Production Planning Optimization Modeling in Demand and Supply Chains of High-Value Consumer Products.

Global optimization methods for the discrete network design problem

Abstract: This paper addresses the discrete network design problem (DNDP) with multiple capacity levels, or multi-capacity DNDP for short, which determines the optimal number of lanes to add to each candidate link in a road network. We formulate the problem as a bi-level programming model, where the upper level aims to minimize the total travel time via adding new lanes to candidate links and the lower level is a traditional Wardrop user equilibrium (UE) problem. We propose two global optimization methods by taking advantage of the relationship between UE and system optimal (SO) traffic assignment principles. The first method, termed as SO-relaxation, exploits the property that an optimal network design solution under SO principle can be a good approximate solution under UE principle, and successively sorts the solutions in the order of increasing total travel time under SO principle. Optimality is guaranteed when the lower bound of the total travel time of the unexplored solutions under UE principle is not less than the total travel time of a known solution under UE principle. The second method, termed as UE-reduction, adds the objective function of the Beckmann-McGuire-Winsten transformation of UE traffic assignment to the constraints of the SO-relaxation formulation of the multi-capacity DNDP. This constraint is convex and strengthens the SO-relaxation formulation. We also develop a dynamic outer-approximation scheme to make use of the state-of-the-art mixed-integer linear programming solvers to solve the SO-relaxation formulation. Numerical experiments based on a two-link network and the Sioux-Falls network are conducted.

Method and system for global communications network management and display of market-price information

Abstract: A system and method for flexibly routing communications transmissions in an efficient manner is disclosed. In a preferred embodiment, service providers submit information to a centralized server node which comprises cost and service parameter data for routing a communication from a first location to a second location. The server node receives all of the submitted rate information, evaluates it, and generates from the information a rate-table database comprising efficient routing paths for connecting transmissions between any two locations in a communications switching network. The server may be programmed to substantially optimize its rate-table database with respect to one or more parameters, such as price, network utilization, return traffic volumes, and others. Service requesters submit service requests to the centralized service node. The server node identifies efficient routes which meet the requesters' requirements and brokers sales of communication (or connect) time from the service providers to the service requesters. In a preferred embodiment the system is capable of displaying market-price information related to the supported communication routes to prospective sellers and buyers of connection time.