Problème de plus court chemin

vignette|Exemple d'un plus court chemin du sommet A au sommet F : (A, C, E, D, F). En théorie des graphes, le 'problème de plus court chemin' est le problème algorithmique qui consiste à trouver un chemin d'un sommet à un autre de façon que la somme des poids des arcs de ce chemin soit minimale. Variantes du problème du plus court chemin Il existe de nombreuses variantes de ce problème suivant que le graphe est fini, orienté ou non, que chaque arc ou arête possède ou non une valeur qui peut être un poids ou une longueur. Un chemin le plus court entre deux nœuds donnés est un chemin qui minimise la somme des valeurs des arcs traversés. Pour calculer un plus court chemin, il existe de nombreux algorithmes, selon la nature des valeurs et des contraintes supplémentaires qui peuvent être imposées. Dans de nombreux cas, il existe des algorithmes de complexité en temps polynomiale, comme l'algorithme de Dijkstra dans des graphes avec poids positifs. En revanche, lorsque des contr

Problèmes de cheminements optimaux dans les réseaux avec contraintes associées aux arcs

In this thesis we consider two optimal routing problems in networks. Both are NP-hard and are often used to modelize real life problems of large size. We first present the capacitated arc routing problem (CARP). In this problem, we have to serve a set of customers represented by the arcs of a network with vehicles of restricted capacity. The aim is to design a set of vehicle routes of least total cost. We describe two heuristic methods for the CARP based on local search techniques. The first one is a Tabu Search heuristic using an original post-optimization procedure. Principles appearing in this procedure are used to define a class of neighborhoods we combine in a Variable Neighborhood Descent method. Our algorithms compare favorably with some of her methods. They were initially developed to deal with the undirected CARP. We describe how to transform them so that they can be applied to the directed CARP. We also propose an adaptation to the directed case of a lower bound originally developed for the undirected CARP. This lower bound is used to evaluate the quality of the solutions produced by our algorithms for the directed CARP. Our methods obtain solutions whose value is, on average, close to known lower bounds. We use the CARP to tackle a real life problem of boat routing and scheduling. This problem can be viewed as a directed CARP with time windows. We describe in detail its modeling process and we analyze our first results. We obtain solutions that require less boats than the present schedule. Nevertheless, these solutions are not completely feasible in practice. We suggest some ways to improve them. The second problem treated in this thesis is the shortest capacitated paths problem (SCPP). We present a Tabu Search heuristic and some post-optimization procedures for the SCPP. These procedures are called in our Tabu Search algorithm. Two versions of this algorithm are considered. In the first one, post-optimization procedures are intensively used. In the second one, they are less frequently applied. This second version is faster. Compared with a greedy approach, the two versions of our Tabu Search heuristic obtain solutions which are, on average, of better quality. The SCPP was proposed to us by EDF (Electricité de France) in order to minimize the total length of the paths followed by cables in a nuclear power-station. It can also be viewed as a subproblem of the bandwidth packing problem (BWP) appearing in telecommunications.

EPFL2000

Approximation algorithms for regret minimization in vehicle routing problems

Adrian Aloysius Bock

In this thesis, we present new approximation algorithms as well as hardness of approximation results for NP-hard vehicle routing problems related to public transportation. We consider two different problem classes that also occur frequently in areas such as logistics, robotics, or distribution systems. For the first problem class, the goal is to visit as many locations in a network as possible subject to timing or cost constraints. For the second problem class, a given set of locations is to be visited using a minimum-cost set of routes under some constraints. Due to the relevance of both problem classes for public transportation, a secondary objective must be taken into account beyond a low operation cost: namely, it is crucial to design routes that optimize customer satisfaction in order to encourage customers to use the service. Our measure of choice is the regret of a customer, that is the time comparison of the chosen route with the shortest path to a destination. From the first problem class, we investigate variants and extensions of the Orienteering problem that asks to find a short walk maximizing the profit obtained from visiting distinct locations. We give approximation algorithms for variants in which the walk has to respect constraints on the regret of the visited vertices. Additionally, we describe a framework to extend approximation algorithms for Orienteering problems to consider also a second budget constraint, namely node demands, that have to be satisfied in order to collect the profit. We obtain polynomial time approximation schemes for the Capacitated Orienteering problem on trees and Euclidean metrics. Furthermore, we study variants of the School Bus problem (SBP). In SBP, a given set of locations is to be connected to a destination node with both low operation cost and a low maximum regret. We note that the Orienteering problem can be seen as the pricing problem for SBP and it often appears as subroutine in algorithms for SBP. For tree-shaped networks, we describe algorithms with a small constant approximation factor and complement them by showing hardness of approximation results. We give an overview of the known results in arbitrary networks and we prove that a general variant cannot be approximated unless P = NP. Finally, we describe an integer programming approach to solve School Bus problems in practice and present an improved bus schedule for a private school in the lake Geneva region.

EPFL2014

The Performance of Measurement-Based Overlay Networks

Sonja Buchegger, Paolo Scotton

The literature contains propositions for the use of overlay networks to supplement the normal IP routing functions with higher-level information in order to improve aspects of network behavior. We consider the use of such an overlay to optimize the end-to-end behavior of some special tra c ows. Measurements are used both to construct the virtual links of the overlay and to establish the link costs for use in a link-state routing protocol. The overlay attempts to forward certain packets over the least congested rather than the shortest path. We present simulation results showing that contrary to common belief overlay networks are not always bene cial and can be detrimental.

2002

Problèmes de cheminements optimaux dans les réseaux avec contraintes associées aux arcs

EPFL2000

Approximation algorithms for regret minimization in vehicle routing problems

Adrian Aloysius Bock

EPFL2014