Traffic splitting in MPLS networks – a hierarchical multicriteria approach, Journal of Telecommunications and Information Technology, 2007, nr 4

In this paper we address a new hierarchical multicriteria routing model associated with a two-path traffic splitting routing method in MPLS networks whereby the bandwidth required by a given node-to-node traffic flow is divided by two disjoint paths. The model has two levels of objective functions and several constraints. An algorithmic approach is presented for calculating non-dominated solutions and selecting good compromise solutions to this problem. Also a number of computational experiments are presented

An Analysis of Some Algorithms and Heuristics for Multiobjective Graph Search

Muchos problemas reales requieren examinar un número exponencial de alternativas para encontrar la elección óptima. A este tipo de problemas se les llama de optimización combinatoria. Además, en problemas reales normalmente se evalúan múltiples magnitudes que presentan conflicto entre ellas. Cuando se optimizan múltiples obje-tivos simultáneamente, generalmente no existe un valor óptimo que satisfaga al mismo tiempo los requisitos para todos los criterios. Solucionar estos problemas combinatorios multiobjetivo deriva comúnmente en un gran conjunto de soluciones Pareto-óptimas, que definen los balances óptimos entre los objetivos considerados. En esta tesis se considera uno de los problemas multiobjetivo más recurrentes: la búsqueda de caminos más cortos en un grafo, teniendo en cuenta múltiples objetivos al mismo tiempo. Se pueden señalar muchas aplicaciones prácticas de la búsqueda multiobjetivo en diferentes dominios: enrutamiento en redes multimedia (Clímaco et al., 2003), programación de satélites (Gabrel & Vanderpooten, 2002), problemas de transporte (Pallottino & Scutellà, 1998), enrutamiento en redes de ferrocarril (Müller-Hannemann & Weihe, 2006), planificación de rutas en redes de carreteras (Jozefowiez et al., 2008), vigilancia con robots (delle Fave et al., 2009) o planificación independiente del dominio (Refanidis & Vlahavas, 2003). La planificación de rutas multiobjetivo sobre mapas de carretera realistas ha sido considerada como un escenario de aplicación potencial para los algoritmos y heurísticos multiobjetivo considerados en esta tesis. El transporte de materias peligrosas (Erkut et al., 2007), otro problema de enrutamiento multiobjetivo relacionado, ha sido también considerado como un escenario de aplicación potencial interesante. Los métodos de optimización de un solo criterio son bien conocidos y han sido ampliamente estudiados. La Búsqueda Heurística permite la reducción de los requisitos de espacio y tiempo de estos métodos, explotando el uso de estimaciones de la distancia real al objetivo. Los problemas multiobjetivo son bastante más complejos que sus equivalentes de un solo objetivo y requieren métodos específicos. Éstos, van desde técnicas de solución exactas a otras aproximadas, que incluyen los métodos metaheurísticos aproximados comúnmente encontrados en la literatura. Esta tesis se ocupa de algoritmos exactos primero-el-mejor y, en particular, del uso de información heurística para mejorar su rendimiento. Esta tesis contribuye análisis tanto formales como empíricos de algoritmos y heurísticos para búsqueda multiobjetivo. La caracterización formal de estos algoritmos es importante para el campo. Sin embargo, la evaluación empírica es también de gran importancia para la aplicación real de estos métodos. Se han utilizado diversas clases de problemas bien conocidos para probar su rendimiento, incluyendo escenarios realistas como los descritos más arriba. Los resultados de esta tesis proporcionan una mejor comprensión de qué métodos de los disponibles sonmejores en situaciones prácticas. Se presentan explicaciones formales y empíricas acerca de su comportamiento. Se muestra que la búsqueda heurística reduce considerablemente los requisitos de espacio y tiempo en la mayoría de las ocasiones. En particular, se presentan los primeros resultados sistemáticos mostrando las ventajas de la aplicación de heurísticos multiobjetivo precalculados. Esta tesis también aporta un método mejorado para el precálculo de los heurísticos, y explora la conveniencia de heurísticos precalculados más informados.Many real problems require the examination of an exponential number of alternatives in order to find the best choice. They are the so-called combinatorial optimization problems. Besides, real problems usually involve the consideration of several conflicting magnitudes. When multiple objectives must be simultaneously optimized, there is generally not an optimal value satisfying the requirements for all the criteria at the same time. Solving these multiobjective combinatorial problems commonly results in a large set of Pareto-optimal solutions, which define the optimal tradeoffs between the objectives under consideration. One of most recurrent multiobjective problems is considered in this thesis: the search for shortest paths in a graph, taking into account several objectives at the same time. Many practical applications of multiobjective search in different domains can be pointed out: routing in multimedia networks (Clímaco et al., 2003), satellite scheduling (Gabrel & Vanderpooten, 2002), transportation problems (Pallottino & Scutellà, 1998), routing in railway networks (Müller-Hannemann & Weihe, 2006), route planning in road maps (Jozefowiez et al., 2008), robot surveillance (delle Fave et al., 2009) or domain independent planning (Refanidis & Vlahavas, 2003). Multiobjective route planning over realistic road maps has been considered as a potential application scenario for the multiobjective algorithms and heuristics considered in this thesis. Hazardous material transportation (Erkut et al., 2007), another related multiobjective routing problem, has also been considered as an interesting potential application scenario. Single criterion shortest path methods are well known and have been widely studied. Heuristic Search allows the reduction of the space and time requirements of these methods, exploiting estimates of the actual distance to the goal. Multiobjective problems are much more complex than their single-objective counterparts, and require specific methods. These range from exact solution techniques to approximate ones, including the metaheuristic approximate methods usually found in the literature. This thesis is concerned with exact best-first algorithms, and particularly, with the use of heuristic information to improve their performance. This thesis contributes both formal and empirical analysis of algorithms and heuristics for multiobjective search. The formal characterization of algorithms is important for the field. However, empirical evaluation is also of great importance for the real application of these methods. Several well known classes of problems have been used to test their performance, including some realistic scenarios as described above. The results of this thesis provide a better understanding of which of the available methods are better in practical situations. Formal and empirical explanations of their behaviour are presented. Heuristic search is shown to reduce considerably space and time requirements in most situations. In particular, the first systematic results showing the advantages of the application of precalculated multiobjective heuristics are presented. The thesis also contributes an improved method for heuristic precalculation, and explores the convenience of more informed precalculated heuristics.This work is partially funded by / Este trabajo está financiado por: Consejería de Economía, Innovación, Ciencia y Empresa. Junta de Andalucía (España) Referencia: P07-TIC-0301

Improving Performance of Feedback-Based Real-Time Networks using Model Checking and Reinforcement Learning

Traditionally, automatic control techniques arose due to need for automation in mechanical systems. These techniques rely on robust mathematical modelling of physical systems with the goal to drive their behaviour to desired set-points. Decades of research have successfully automated, optimized, and ensured safety of a wide variety of mechanical systems. Recent advancement in digital technology has made computers pervasive into every facet of life. As such, there have been many recent attempts to incorporate control techniques into digital technology. This thesis investigates the intersection and co-application of control theory and computer science to evaluate and improve performance of time-critical systems. The thesis applies two different research areas, namely, model checking and reinforcement learning to design and evaluate two unique real-time networks in conjunction with control technologies. The first is a camera surveillance system with the goal of constrained resource allocation to self-adaptive cameras. The second is a dual-delay real-time communication network with the goal of safe packet routing with minimal delays.The camera surveillance system consists of self-adaptive cameras and a centralized manager, in which the cameras capture a stream of images and transmit them to a central manager over a shared constrained communication channel. The event-based manager allocates fractions of the shared bandwidth to all cameras in the network. The thesis provides guarantees on the behaviour of the camera surveillance network through model checking. Disturbances that arise during image capture due to variations in capture scenes are modelled using probabilistic and non-deterministic Markov Decision Processes (MDPs). The different properties of the camera network such as the number of frame drops and bandwidth reallocations are evaluated through formal verification.The second part of the thesis explores packet routing for real-time networks constructed with nodes and directed edges. Each edge in the network consists of two different delays, a worst-case delay that captures high load characteristics, and a typical delay that captures the current network load. Each node in the network takes safe routing decisions by considering delays already encountered and the amount of remaining time. The thesis applies reinforcement learning to route packets through the network with minimal delays while ensuring the total path delay from source to destination does not exceed the pre-determined deadline of the packet. The reinforcement learning algorithm explores new edges to find optimal routing paths while ensuring safety through a simple pre-processing algorithm. The thesis shows that it is possible to apply powerful reinforcement learning techniques to time-critical systems with expert knowledge about the system

On the performance analysis of a heuristic approach dedicated to a multiobjective dynamic routing model, Journal of Telecommunications and Information Technology, 2005, nr 3

In previous works the features and a complete formulation for circuit-switched networks of a multiple objective dynamic routing method (MODR) of periodic state dependent routing type were presented. The aim of the model is to resolve a very complex network bi-objective dynamic routing problem, by recurring to a heuristic for synchronous path selection enabling to obtain a good compromise solution in terms of two network performance measures. In this paper we present a study on the performance of variants of the MODR heuristic of synchronous path selection by using relaxations of the values previously calculated for the two network objective functions. This study permitted the development of an improved version of the initial heuristic. Also a comparison of the analytical values of the network objective functions obtained with selected variants of the initial heuristic with the corresponding results from a known reference method, the real time network routing (RTNR) method, given by a discrete-event simulator for single-service networks, is presented

Two heuristics for calculating a shared risk link group disjoint set of paths of min-sum cost

A shared risk link group (SRLG) is a set of links which share a common risk of failure. Routing protocols in Generalized MultiProtocol Label Switching, using distributed SRLG information, can calculate paths avoiding certain SRLGs. For single SRLG failure an end-to-end SRLG-disjoint path pair can be calculated, but to ensure connection in the event of multiple SRLG failures a set with more than two end-to-end SRLG-disjoint paths should be used. Two heuristic, the Conflicting SRLG-Exclusion Min Sum (CoSE-MS) and the Iterative Modified Suurballes’s Heuristic (IMSH), for calculating node and SRLG-disjoint path pairs, which use the Modified Suurballes’s Heuristic, are reviewed and new versions (CoSE-MScd and IMSHd) are proposed, which may improve the number of obtained optimal solutions. Moreover two new heuristics are proposed: kCoSE-MScd and kIMSHd, to calculate a set of k node and SRLG-disjoint paths, seeking to minimize its total cost. To the best of our knowledge these heuristics are a first proposal for seeking a set of k ðk[2Þ node and SRLG-disjoint paths of minimal additive cost. The performance of the proposed heuristics is evaluated using a real network structure, where SRLGs were randomly defined. The number of solutions found, the percentage of optimal solutions and the relative error of the sub-optimal solutions are presented. Also the CPU time for solving the problem in a path computation element is reported

A note on the computation of ordered supported non-dominated solutions in the bi-criteria minimum spanning tree problems, Journal of Telecommunications and Information Technology, 2007, nr 4

This paper presents a new procedure for computing the set of supported non dominated solutions of bi-criteria minimum spanning tree problems in ordered manner. The procedure is based on the systematic detection of edges which must be replaced in one efficient solution to obtain the adjacent one, in the criteria space. This new approach avoids solving unnecessary problems and makes use of previous computations