Optimal Topological Design of Communication Networks Using Generational/Steady-State and Struggle Genetic Algorithms

Abstract: This paper presents three variants of the simple Genetic Algorithm (GA) with specialized encoding, initialization and constraints handling mechanisms to optimize the design of topologies and capacity assignment (TDCA) problem of broadband communication network. This NP-Complete problem is often a highly constrained optimization problem that is better solved using GAs combined with specialized, problem specific genetic operators. A network of 20 nodes is used to test the developed algorithm. Improved results, both in network performance and computation speed, are obtained when comparing with existing heuristic approaches. Similar methodology can be applied for the design of other communication networks