A cross entropy approach to design of reliable networks

• Published in: European journal of operational research Vol. 199; no. 2; pp. 542 - 552
• Main Authors: Altiparmak, Fulya, Dengiz, Berna
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.12.2009; Elsevier; Elsevier Sequoia S.A
• Series: European Journal of Operational Research
• Subjects: Algorithmics. Computability. Computer arithmetics; Applied sciences; Communication; Communication networks; Communication networks Network design Network reliability Cross-entropy method Meta-heuristics Monte Carlo technique; Communications networks; Comparative analysis; Computer science; control theory; systems; Computer systems and distributed systems. User interface; Cross-entropy method; Entropy; Exact sciences and technology; Heuristic; Meta-heuristics; Monte Carlo technique; Network design; Network reliability; Network topologies; Reliability; Software; Studies; Theoretical computing; Network design; Network reliability; Monte Carlo technique; Communication networks; Cross-entropy method; Meta-heuristics; Availability; Monte Carlo method; Enumeration; Entropy; Distributed system; Communication network; Modeling; Terminal; Optimization; Network topology; Heuristic method; NP hard problem; Reliability
• ISSN: 0377-2217; 1872-6860
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2008.11.022

One of the most important parameters determining the performance of communication networks is network reliability. The network reliability strongly depends on not only topological layout of the communication networks but also reliability and availability of the communication facilities. The selection of optimal network topology is an NP-hard problem so that computation time of enumeration-based methods grows exponentially with network size. This paper presents a new solution approach based on cross-entropy method, called NCE, to design of communication networks. The design problem is to find a network topology with minimum cost such that all-terminal reliability is not less than a given level of reliability. To investigate the effectiveness of the proposed NCE, comparisons with other heuristic approaches given in the literature for the design problem are carried out in a three-stage experimental study. Computational results show that NCE is an effective heuristic approach to design of reliable networks.