Practical Large-Scale Network Design with Variable Costs for Links and Switches

This paper considers communication network design problems that arise in the real world, with large numbers of nodes and link and switch costs dependent upon their traffic capacity. Such costs, in turn, depend upon network topology so are not fixed at the start of, or through, any optimisation process. Realistic topological restrictions are also discussed. The limitations of conventional approaches – both constructive and search based – are noted and the requirements of practical optimisation methods explored. Two workable approaches to network design - one an established local search variant, another a more novel geometric approach - are introduced. Five different algorithms, ranging from exhaustive search to fast heuristic are compared with experimental results given in conclusion