Solving the Hub location problem in telecommunication network design: A local search approach

Abstract

This article deals with a Hub Location Problem arising inTelecommunication Network Design. The considered network presents two different kinds of nodes: access nodes, that represent source and destination of traffic demands but cannot be directly connected, and transit nodes, that have no own traffic demand but collect traffic from access nodes and route it through the network. Transit nodes are supposed to be fully connected. Given a set of access nodes and a set of potential locations for the transit nodes, the problem is to decide number and positions of the transit nodes to guarantee that all access nodes are allocated to a transit node, satisfying capacity constraints. The goal is to minimize the total cost of the network, which is the sum of connection costs and nodes fixed costs. The problem is a Hub Location Problem, which is known to be NP-hard. A local search approach is proposed, and different metaheuristic algorithms, such as tabu search, iterated local search and random multistart, have been developed, based on such local search. [A preliminary procedure has been developed in a research project joint with Telecom Italia (Turin Research & Innovation Laboratories) and a patent application has been filed to cover this issue.]

The latest arrival hub location problem for cargo delivery systems with stopovers

“…A recent and extensive survey of hub location problems is given in Campbell et al (2002), chapter 12 of Drezner and Hamacher (2002). Among recent studies are Boland et al (2004), Carello et al (2004), Ernst et al (2002), Hamacher et al (2004), Labbe and Yaman (2004), Labbe et al (2005), Marin (2005), Mayer and Wagner (2002), Racunica and Wynter (2005), Tan and Kara (2007), Topcuoglu et al (2005) and Yaman and Carello (2005).…”

A literature survey of HUB location problems and methods with emphasis on the marine transportations

“…Since, HLP provide some advantages on network that reduce the costs, many companies in the world have applied HLP in practice. Transportation (Yaman et al, 2007), airline (Saberi & Mahmassani, 2013), telecommunication (Carello et al, 2004), Civil Aviation Studies Association (O'kelly, 1986b), postal and emergencies service (Drezner & Hamacher, 2001) and maritime industry (Zheng et al, 2015) can be considered as several examples of HLP application in real world situations. Altogether, two of the most important and well-known application areas of HLPs are telecommunications and transportations.…”

“…The hub edges are considered as different types of physical media, like optical fiber, coaxial cable etc. There are some study in this area such as Carello et al (2004), and Lee et al (1996). In transportation applications, like public transportation systems, airlines, air freight, express shipmentovernight deliver-, large trucking system, postal delivery and rapid transit, the demands are physical flows in form of passengers or goods to be transferred between any of the origins and destinations.…”

Polyhedral Analysis for Concentrator Location Problems

“…Often in telecommunication applications, the fixed demand of a node is the sum of the traffic with this node as origin or destination. Then the capacity of a concentrator is in terms of the traffic on the links adjacent to that concentrator (see [7,15]). …”