Path-relinking is major enhancement to heuristic search methods for solving combinatorial optimization problems, leading to significant improvements in both solution quality and running times. We review its fundamentals and implementation strategies, as well as advanced hybridizations with more elaborate metaheuristic schemes such as genetic algorithms and scatter search. Numerical examples are discussed and algorithms compared based on their run time distributions.
Citation
AT&T Labs Research Technical Report, Florham Park, NJ 07932, April 2010.