Network Dimensioning with Maximum Revenue Efficiency for the Fairness Index, Journal of Telecommunications and Information Technology, 2016, nr 4

Network dimensioning is a specific kind of the resource allocation problem. One of the tasks in the network optimization is to maximize the total flow on given pairs of nodes (so-called demands or paths between source and target). The task can be more complicated when different revenue/profit gained from each unit of traffic stream allocated on each demand is taken into account. When the total revenue is maximized the problem of starvation of less attractive paths can appear. Therefore, it is important to include some fairness criteria to preserve connections between all the demands on a given degree of quality, also for the least attractive paths. In this paper, a new bicriteria ratio optimization method which takes into account both, the revenue and the fairness is proposed. Mathematical model is built in a form of linear programming. The solutions are analyzed with some statistical measures to evaluate their quality, with respect to fairness and efficiency. In particular, the Gini’s coefficient is used for this purpose

Supply constrained location-distribution in not-for-profit settings

Inspired by the World Food Programme's activity in the post-civil war food crisis in Angola, this study proposes a systematic approach to address the location distribution problem in not-for-profit settings, where a limited volume of supply has to be allocated to different demand regions. The use of utility functions is key in our framework because it allows the decision-maker to establish priorities by representing the heterogeneous effects of distributing supply to different demand locations (location effect) and to different individuals in the same demand location (diminishing returns effect). We propose the use of two fractional objectives with the utility functions embedded into them: an efficiency measure and a new inequity measure related to the Gini coefficient. The suggested problem has the form of a bi-objective integer linear fractional program and our resolution optimization technique is designed to solve for multiple fractional objective measures. Novel analytical results for the worst-case performance of the proposed resolution technique are provided. Our numerical experiments assess computational efficiency and provide concrete managerial prescriptions. Finally, an illustrative application of our approach in the context of the food crisis in Angola is presented based on an efficiency-inequity trade-off analysis.This research was partially supported by Sejong University[Grant 20180391] (Park) and Purdue University [Doug andMaria DeVos] (Berenguer)

Different aspects of supporting group consensus reaching process under fuzziness

In this paper we present human-consistent approach of multi-model consensus reaching process supporting by group decision support systems. We consider the idea developed by Kacprzyk and Zadrożny [9, 10, 12] which is related to the “soft” consensus, and where the core of the system is based on fuzzy logic. Essentially, we attempt to stress the multi-model architecture of considering system and distinguish several aspects, i.e. model of agent, model of moderator, model of consensus achievement. Moreover, we present a novel concept based on fair consensus as a meaningful point of further development

A REVIEW OF APPLICATIONS OF MULTIPLE - CRITERIA DECISION-MAKING TECHNIQUES TO FISHERIES

Management of public resources, such as fisheries, is a complex task. Society, in general, has a number of goals that it hopes to achieve from the use of public resources. These include conservation, economic, and social objectives. However, these objectives often conflict, due to the varying opinions of the many stakeholders. It would appear that the techniques available in the field of multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) are well suited to the analysis and determination of fisheries management regimes. However, to date, relatively few publications exist using such MCDM methods compared to other applicational fields, such as forestry, agriculture, and finance. This paper reviews MCDM applied to fishery management by providing an overview of the research published to date. Conclusions are drawn regarding the success and applicability of these techniques to analyzing fisheries management problems.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Fair and efficient network dimensioning with the reference point methodology, Journal of Telecommunications and Information Technology, 2006, nr 4

The dimensioning of telecommunication networks that carry elastic traffic requires the fulfillment of two conflicting goals: maximizing the total network throughput and providing fairness to all flows. Fairness in telecommunication network design is usually provided using the so-called max-min fairness (MMF) approach. However, this approach maximizes the performance of the worst (most expensive) flows which may cause a large worsening of the overall throughput of the network. In this paper we show how the concepts of multiple criteria equitable optimization can be effectively used to generate various fair and efficient allocation schemes. We introduce a multiple criteria model equivalent to equitable optimization and we develop a corresponding reference point procedure for fair and efficient network dimensioning for elastic flows. The procedure is tested on a sample network dimensioning problem for elastic traffic and its abilities to model various preferences are demonstrated

An Integration of Rank Order Centroid, Modified Analytical Hierarchy Process and 0-1 Integer Programming in Solving A Facility Location Problem

Hadhramout province is the major producer of dates in The Republic of Yemen. Despite producing substantial quantity and quality of dates, the business losses are still high. The situation worsens with the widespread of the black market activities. Recently, the Yemeni government has issued an agreement stating the importance of building a date palm packaging factory as a resolution to the problems. Hence, this study aims to identify the best location for a date palm packaging factory among the seven districts which produce most of the date palm supplies in Hadhramout. The selection was based on eleven criteria identified by several representatives from the farmers and the local councils. These criteria were market growth, proximity to the markets, proximity to the raw materials, labor, labor climate, suppliers, community, transportation cost, environmental factors, production cost, and factory set up cost. The level of importance and the respective weight of each criterion were calculated using two different approaches, namely, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Rank Order Centroid (ROC). In applying AHP, a slight modification was made in the pairwise comparison exercises that eliminated the inconsistency problem faced by the standard AHP pairwise comparison procedure. Likewise, in applying ROC, a normalization technique was proposed to tackle the problem of assigning weights to criteria having the same priority level, which was neither clarified nor available in the standard ROC. Both proposed techniques revealed that suppliers were the most important criterion, while community was regarded to be the least important criterion in deciding the final location for the date palm factory. Combining the criteria weights together with several hard and soft constraints that were required to be satisfied by the location, the final location was determined using three different mathematical models, namely, the ROC combined with 0-1 integer programming model, the AHP combined with 0-1 integer programming model, and the mean of ROC and AHP combined with 0-1 integer programming model. The three models produced the same result; Doean was the best location. The result of this study, if implemented, would hopefully help the Yemeni government in their effort to improve the production as well as the management of the date palm tree in Hadhramout