24,175 research outputs found
A Computational Comparison of Optimization Methods for the Golomb Ruler Problem
The Golomb ruler problem is defined as follows: Given a positive integer n,
locate n marks on a ruler such that the distance between any two distinct pair
of marks are different from each other and the total length of the ruler is
minimized. The Golomb ruler problem has applications in information theory,
astronomy and communications, and it can be seen as a challenge for
combinatorial optimization algorithms. Although constructing high quality
rulers is well-studied, proving optimality is a far more challenging task. In
this paper, we provide a computational comparison of different optimization
paradigms, each using a different model (linear integer, constraint programming
and quadratic integer) to certify that a given Golomb ruler is optimal. We
propose several enhancements to improve the computational performance of each
method by exploring bound tightening, valid inequalities, cutting planes and
branching strategies. We conclude that a certain quadratic integer programming
model solved through a Benders decomposition and strengthened by two types of
valid inequalities performs the best in terms of solution time for small-sized
Golomb ruler problem instances. On the other hand, a constraint programming
model improved by range reduction and a particular branching strategy could
have more potential to solve larger size instances due to its promising
parallelization features
Branching on multi-aggregated variables
open5siopenGamrath, Gerald; Melchiori, Anna; Berthold, Timo; Gleixner, Ambros M.; Salvagnin, DomenicoGamrath, Gerald; Melchiori, Anna; Berthold, Timo; Gleixner, Ambros M.; Salvagnin, Domenic
A local branching heuristic for MINLPs
Local branching is an improvement heuristic, developed within the context of
branch-and-bound algorithms for MILPs, which has proved to be very effective in
practice. For the binary case, it is based on defining a neighbourhood of the
current incumbent solution by allowing only a few binary variables to flip
their value, through the addition of a local branching constraint. The
neighbourhood is then explored with a branch-and-bound solver. We propose a
local branching scheme for (nonconvex) MINLPs which is based on iteratively
solving MILPs and NLPs. Preliminary computational experiments show that this
approach is able to improve the incumbent solution on the majority of the test
instances, requiring only a short CPU time. Moreover, we provide algorithmic
ideas for a primal heuristic whose purpose is to find a first feasible
solution, based on the same scheme
Bin Packing and Related Problems: General Arc-flow Formulation with Graph Compression
We present an exact method, based on an arc-flow formulation with side
constraints, for solving bin packing and cutting stock problems --- including
multi-constraint variants --- by simply representing all the patterns in a very
compact graph. Our method includes a graph compression algorithm that usually
reduces the size of the underlying graph substantially without weakening the
model. As opposed to our method, which provides strong models, conventional
models are usually highly symmetric and provide very weak lower bounds.
Our formulation is equivalent to Gilmore and Gomory's, thus providing a very
strong linear relaxation. However, instead of using column-generation in an
iterative process, the method constructs a graph, where paths from the source
to the target node represent every valid packing pattern.
The same method, without any problem-specific parameterization, was used to
solve a large variety of instances from several different cutting and packing
problems. In this paper, we deal with vector packing, graph coloring, bin
packing, cutting stock, cardinality constrained bin packing, cutting stock with
cutting knife limitation, cutting stock with binary patterns, bin packing with
conflicts, and cutting stock with binary patterns and forbidden pairs. We
report computational results obtained with many benchmark test data sets, all
of them showing a large advantage of this formulation with respect to the
traditional ones
Using a conic bundle method to accelerate both phases of a quadratic convex reformulation
We present algorithm MIQCR-CB that is an advancement of method
MIQCR~(Billionnet, Elloumi and Lambert, 2012). MIQCR is a method for solving
mixed-integer quadratic programs and works in two phases: the first phase
determines an equivalent quadratic formulation with a convex objective function
by solving a semidefinite problem , and, in the second phase, the
equivalent formulation is solved by a standard solver. As the reformulation
relies on the solution of a large-scale semidefinite program, it is not
tractable by existing semidefinite solvers, already for medium sized problems.
To surmount this difficulty, we present in MIQCR-CB a subgradient algorithm
within a Lagrangian duality framework for solving that substantially
speeds up the first phase. Moreover, this algorithm leads to a reformulated
problem of smaller size than the one obtained by the original MIQCR method
which results in a shorter time for solving the second phase.
We present extensive computational results to show the efficiency of our
algorithm
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