Single allocation hub location problem under congestion: Network owner and user perspectives

• Published in: Expert systems with applications Vol. 39; no. 3; pp. 3385 - 3391
• Main Authors: de Camargo, R.S., Miranda, G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 15.02.2012
• Subjects: Allocations; Combinatorial analysis; Congestion; Congestioned hub-and-spoke networks; Expert systems; Generalized Benders decomposition; Mixed integer; Networks; Nonlinear mixed-integer programming; Nonlinearity; Position (location); Nonlinear mixed-integer programming; Congestioned hub-and-spoke networks; Generalized Benders decomposition
• ISSN: 0957-4174; 1873-6793
• DOI: 10.1016/j.eswa.2011.09.026

► Hub-and-spoke systems with single assignment are sensitive to congestion. ► An effective Benders approach is devised. ► Two congestion perspectives are assessed: The network user and the network owner. ► The two addressed congestion perspectives yield to very different networks. ► During the design phase, these two distinct optimal networks have to be considered. The single allocation hub location problem under congestion is addressed in this article. This mixed integer non-linear programming problem is referential in discrete location research having many real applications. Two different network design perspectives are proposed: the network owner and the network user. These perspectives can be translated into mathematical programming problems that are very hard to solve due to their inherently high combinatorial nature combined to the nonlinearities associated to congestion. A very efficient and effective generalized Benders decomposition algorithm is then deployed, enabling the solution of large scale instances in reasonable time.