On Solving a Hard Quadratic 3-Dimensional Assignment Problem

We address the exact solution of a very challenging (and previously unsolved) instance of the quadratic 3-dimensional assignment problem, arising in digital wireless communications. The paper describes the techniques developed to solve this instance to proven optimality, from the choice of an appropriate mixed-integer programming formulation, to cutting planes and symmetry handling. Using these techniques … Read more

Ancestral Benders’ Cuts and Multi-term Disjunctions for Mixed-Integer Recourse Decisions in Stochastic Programming

This paper focuses on solving two-stage stochastic mixed integer programs (SMIPs) with general mixed integer decision variables in both stages. We develop a decomposition algorithm in which the first stage approximation is solved using a branch-and-bound tree with nodes inheriting Benders’ cuts that are valid for their ancestor nodes. In addition, we develop two closely … Read more

Exact and Heuristic Approaches for Directional Sensor Control

Directional sensors are gaining importance due to applications, in- cluding surveillance, detection, and tracking. Such sensors have a limited fi eld-of-view and a discrete set of directions they can be pointed to. The Directional Sensor Control problem (DSCP) consists in assigning a direction of view to each sensor. The location of the targets is known with … Read more

Improving the LP bound of a MILP by dual concurrent branching and the relationship to cut generation methods

In this paper branching for attacking MILP is investigated. Under certain circumstances branches can be done concurrently. By introducing a new calculus it is shown there are restrictions for dual values. As a second result of this study a new class of cuts for MILP is found, which are defined by those values. This class … Read more

A branch and cut algorithm for minimum spanning trees under conflict constraints

We study approaches for the exact solution of the \NP–hard minimum spanning tree problem under conflict constraints. Given a graph $G(V,E)$ and a set $C \subset E \times E$ of conflicting edge pairs, the problem consists of finding a conflict-free minimum spanning tree, i.e. feasible solutions are allowed to include at most one of the … Read more

Acceleration and Stabilization Techniques for Column Generation Applied to Capacitated Resource Management Problems

This research presents a very efficient method of solving a broad class of large-scale capacitated resource management problems by introducing a new formulation and decomposition. A heuristic called Likelihood of Assignment is utilized not only to find high quality initial integer feasible solutions, but also to guide the Branch-and-Price (B&P) Algorithm towards stabilization. Although Column … Read more

Exact algorithms for the Traveling Salesman Problem with Draft Limits

This paper deals with the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) with Draft Limits (TSPDL), which is a variant of the well-known TSP in the context of maritime transportation. In this recently proposed problem, draft limits are imposed due to restrictions on the port infrastructures. Exact algorithms based on three mathematical formulations are proposed and their performance … Read more

On two relaxations of quadratically-constrained cardinality minimization

This paper considers a quadratically-constrained cardinality minimization problem with applications to digital filter design, subset selection for linear regression, and portfolio selection. Two relaxations are investigated: the continuous relaxation of a mixed integer formulation, and an optimized diagonal relaxation that exploits a simple special case of the problem. For the continuous relaxation, an absolute upper … Read more

On the hop-constrained survivable network design problem with reliable edges

In this paper, we study the hop-constrained survivable network design problem with reliable edges. Given a graph with non-negative edge weights and node pairs Q, the hop-constrained survivable network design problem consists of constructing a minimum weight set of edges so that the induced subgraph contains at least K edge-disjoint paths containing at most L … Read more

Exact Algorithms for Combinatorial Optimization Problems with Submodular Objective Functions

Many combinatorial optimization problems have natural formulations as submodular minimization problems over well-studied combinatorial structures. A standard approach to these problems is to linearize the objective function by introducing new variables and constraints, yielding an extended formulation. We propose two new approaches for constrained submodular minimization problems. The first is a linearization approach that requires … Read more