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A heuristic method for facility planning in telecommunications networks with multiple alternate routes
Author(s) -
Baybars İlker,
Edahl Richard H.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
naval research logistics (nrl)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.665
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1520-6750
pISSN - 0894-069X
DOI - 10.1002/1520-6750(198808)35:4<503::aid-nav3220350406>3.0.co;2-n
Subject(s) - heuristic , transmission (telecommunications) , computer science , time horizon , routing (electronic design automation) , point (geometry) , operations research , network planning and design , mathematical optimization , scale (ratio) , telecommunications , computer network , mathematics , physics , geometry , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence
Given point‐to‐point demand forecasts of transmission facilities for services such as voice or data transmission in each period of a finite planning horizon, a decision has to be made as to which types of transmission facilities—together with the amounts of transmission circuits—are to be installed, if any, on each link of the telecommunications network, in each period of the planning horizon. The availability of alternative transmission systems with significantly different costs and circuit capacities necessitates the determination of a minimum (discounted) cost facility installation scheme. This combinatoric choice problem is complicated by the availability of switching equipments enabling the transmission of some of the traffic through intermediary points. This possibility of alternately routing the traffic or the facility requirements of certain point pairs further complicates the problem while creating the opportunity to benefit from economies of scale. We present here a heuristic method for finding a good solution for the general problem; namely, we consider multiple transmission systems and multiple alternate routes. Numerical examples are given and computational experience is reported.