Reliability and Fault Tolerance based Topological Optimization of Computer Networks - Part II: Iterative Techniques

Abstract-Topological optimization of computer networks is concerned with the selection of a subset of the available links such that the reliability and fault-tolerance aspects are maxhized while meeting a cost constraint. In this case. the problem is stated as opthiring the reliability and fault-tolerance of a network subject to a maximum cost constraint. Existing iterative-based techniques consider the simple single-objective version of the problem by considering reliability as the only objective We consider fault-tolerance to be an important network design "ped We consider the use of three iterative techniques, namely Tabu Search, Simulated Anenling, and Genetic Algorithm, in solving the multi-objective topological optimization network design problem. Experimental results for a set of 10 randomly generated networks using the three iterative techniques are presented and compared. It is shown that improving the fault tolerance of a network can be achieved while optimizing its reliability however at the expense of a reasonable in- m the overall cost of the network. Keywords: Topological Optimization, Fault Tolerance, Reliability, Genetic Algorithm, Tabu Search, Simulated Annealing, Spanning tree