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A memetic algorithm for the capacitated m-ring-star problem

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Abstract

The Capacitated m-Ring-Star Problem (CmRSP) models a network topology design problem in the telecommunications industry. In this paper, we propose to solve this problem using a memetic algorithm that includes a crossover operation, a mutation operation, a local search involving three neighborhood operators, and a population selection strategy that maintains population diversity. Our approach generates the best known solutions for 131 out of 138 benchmark instances, improving on the previous best solutions for 24 of them, and exhibits more advantages on large benchmark instances when compared with the best existing approach. Additionally, all existing algorithms for this problem in literature assume that the underlying graph of the problem instance satisfies the triangle inequality rule; our approach does not require this assumption. We also generated a new set of 36 larger test instances based on a digital data service network price structure to serve as a new benchmark data set for future researchers.

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Acknowledgements

This research was partially supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, HUST (Grant No. 2012QN213) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 71201065).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kong

    Zizhen Zhang & Andrew Lim

  2. School of Management, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, No. 1037, Luoyu Road, Wuhan, China

    Hu Qin

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  1. Zizhen Zhang
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  2. Hu Qin
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  3. Andrew Lim
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Correspondence to Zizhen Zhang.

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Zhang, Z., Qin, H. & Lim, A. A memetic algorithm for the capacitated m-ring-star problem. Appl Intell 40, 305–321 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10489-013-0460-6

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