Decomposition Methods for Network Design

AbstractNetwork design applications are prevalent in transportation and logistics. We consider the multicommodity capacitated fixed-charge network design problem (MCND), a generic model that captures three important features of network design applications: the interplay between investment and operational costs, the multicommodity aspect, and the presence of capacity constraints. We focus on mathematical programming approaches for the MCND and present three classes of methods that have been used to solve large-scale instances of the MCND: a cutting-plane method, a Benders decomposition algorithm, and Lagrangian relaxation approaches

Separable Concave Optimization Approximately Equals Piecewise-Linear Optimization

We study the problem of minimizing a nonnegative separable concave function over a compact feasible set. We approximate this problem to within a factor of 1+epsilon by a piecewise-linear minimization problem over the same feasible set. Our main result is that when the feasible set is a polyhedron, the number of resulting pieces is polynomial in the input size of the polyhedron and linear in 1/epsilon. For many practical concave cost problems, the resulting piecewise-linear cost problem can be formulated as a well-studied discrete optimization problem. As a result, a variety of polynomial-time exact algorithms, approximation algorithms, and polynomial-time heuristics for discrete optimization problems immediately yield fully polynomial-time approximation schemes, approximation algorithms, and polynomial-time heuristics for the corresponding concave cost problems. We illustrate our approach on two problems. For the concave cost multicommodity flow problem, we devise a new heuristic and study its performance using computational experiments. We are able to approximately solve significantly larger test instances than previously possible, and obtain solutions on average within 4.27% of optimality. For the concave cost facility location problem, we obtain a new 1.4991+epsilon approximation algorithm.Comment: Full pape

Flow pack facets of the single node fixed-charge flow polytope

We present a class of facet-defining inequalities for the single node fixed--charge flow polytope and provide a comparison of valid inequalities for this polytope. We also present computational results that show the effectiveness of these inequalities in solving fixed--charge network flow problems

DASH: Dynamic Approach for Switching Heuristics

Complete tree search is a highly effective method for tackling MIP problems, and over the years, a plethora of branching heuristics have been introduced. Recently, portfolio algorithms have taken the process a step further, trying to predict the best heuristic for each instance at hand. This thesis identifies a method which decides the best time to switch the branching heuristic and it is shown how such\na system can be trained efficientl

Decomposition methods for large-scale network expansion problems

Network expansion problems are a special class of multi-period network design problems in which arcs can be opened gradually in different time periods but can never be closed. Motivated by practical applications, we focus on cases where demand between origin-destination pairs expands over a discrete time horizon. Arc opening decisions are taken in every period, and once an arc is opened it can be used throughout the remaining horizon to route several commodities. Our model captures a key timing trade-off: the earlier an arc is opened, the more periods it can be used for, but its fixed cost is higher, since it accounts not only for construction but also for maintenance over the remaining horizon. An overview of practical applications indicates that this trade-off is relevant in various settings. For the capacitated variant, we develop an arc-based Lagrange relaxation, combined with local improvement heuristics. For uncapacitated problems, we develop four Benders decompositi