The first K minimum cost paths in a time-schedule network

• Published in: The Journal of the Operational Research Society Vol. 52; no. 1; pp. 102 - 108
• Main Authors: Chen, Y-L, Rinks, D, Tang, K
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Taylor & Francis 01.01.2001; Macmillan Press; Palgrave Macmillan UK; Palgrave; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Algorithms; Applied sciences; Business and Management; Departure time; Exact sciences and technology; Flows in networks. Combinatorial problems; Management; Mathematical procedures; Minimization of cost; Network topologies; networks and graphs; Operational research and scientific management; Operational research. Management science; Operations research; Operations Research/Decision Theory; road transport; Scheduling; shortest path; Studies; Technical Note; Technical Notes; Time windows; Total costs; Travel expenses; Travel time; Unit costs; networks and graphs; road transport; shortest path; Graph; Network; Task scheduling; Shortest path; Decision criterion; Time complexity; Polynomial time
• ISSN: 0160-5682; 1476-9360
• DOI: 10.1057/palgrave.jors.2601028

The time-constrained shortest path problem is an important generalisation of the classical shortest path problem and in recent years has attracted much research interest. We consider a time-schedule network, where every node in the network has a list of pre-specified departure times and departure from a node may take place only at one of these departure times. The objective of this paper is to find the first K minimum cost simple paths subject to a total time constraint. An efficient polynomial time algorithm is developed. It is also demonstrated that the algorithm can be modified for finding the first K paths for all possible values of total time.