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.

Supply chain network design: partner selection and production/distribution planning using a systematic model

Abstract: In this paper, a novel multi-phase mathematical approach is presented for the design of a complex supply chain network. From the point of network design, customer demands, and for maximum overall utility, the important issues are to find suitable and quality companies, and to decide upon an appropriate production/distribution strategy. The proposed approach is based on the genetic algorithm (GA), the analytical hierarchy process (AHP), and the multi-attribute utility theory (MAUT) to satisfy simultaneously the preferences of the suppliers and the customers at each level in the network. A case study with a good quality solution is provided to confirm the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed approach. Finally, to demonstrate the performance of the proposed approach, a comparative numerical experiment is performed by using the proposed approach and the common single-phase genetic algorithm (SGA). Empirical analysis results demonstrate that the proposed approach can outperform the SGA in partner selection and production/distribution planning for network design.

System for traffic data evaluation of real network with dynamic routing utilizing virtual network modelling

Abstract: To provide an improved approach to traffic data evaluation in a network using dynamic routing there is provided a traffic data evaluation apparatus for a network using dynamic routing comprising traffic data collection means (12) to collect data with respect to a real traffic flow in the network. Further, the traffic data evaluation apparatus comprises a network modelling unit (14, 16) to model the network through a virtual network having virtual links without capacity restrictions imposed thereon. Still further, there is provided a network load evaluation means (18) to map the real traffic flow onto the virtual network assuming optimal routing and to compare the capacity used for each virtual link with the capacity assigned thereto. Thus, it is possible to draw conclusions on the network load by real network measurements also for a network using a dynamic routing protocol.

Supply chain network design under profit maximization and oligopolistic competition

Abstract: In this paper, we model the supply chain network design problem with oligopolistic firms who are involved in the competitive production, storage, and distribution of a homogeneous product to multiple demand markets The profit-maximizing firms select both the capacities associated with the various supply chain network activities as well as the product quantities We formulate the governing Nash–Cournot equilibrium conditions as a variational inequality problem and identify several special cases of the model, notably, a generalization of a spatial oligopoly and a classical oligopoly problem to include design capacity variables The proposed computational approach, which is based on projected dynamical systems, fully exploits the network structure of the problems and yields closed form solutions at each iteration In order to illustrate the modeling framework and the algorithm, we also provide solutions to a spectrum of numerical supply chain network oligopoly design examples This paper makes a contribution to game theoretic modeling of competitive supply chain network design problems in an oligopolistic setting

Performance comparison of 3G and metro-scale WiFi for vehicular network access

Abstract: We perform a head-to-head comparison of the performance characteristics of a 3G network operated by a nation-wide provider and a metro-scale WiFi network operated by a commercial ISP, from the perspective of vehicular network access. Our experience shows that over a wide geographic region and under vehicular mobility, these networks exhibit very different throughput and coverage characteristics. WiFi has frequent disconnections even in a commercially operated, metro-scale deployment; but when connected, indeed delivers high throughputs even in a mobile scenario. The 3G network offers similar or lower throughputs in general, but provides excellent coverage and less throughput variability. The two network characteristics are often complementary. It is conceivable that these properties can be judiciously exploited for a hybrid network design where 3G data can be offloaded to WiFi for better performance and to reduce 3G network congestion and to lower costs.