A Globalized Robust Optimization Approach of Dynamic Network Design Problem With Demand Uncertainty

Abstract

This paper presents a globalized robust optimization approach for a network design problem explicit incorporating traffic dynamics and demand uncertainty. In particular, a non-holding back cell transmission model (CTM) based network design problem of linear programming type is considered to describe dynamic traffic flows, and the normal range of the uncertain demand is assumed to be a box set, i.e., the uncertain demand outside box set is allowed. The major contribution of this paper is to formulate such a globalized robust network design problem as a tractable linear programming model and demonstrate the model robustness and flexibility by comparing its solution performance with the robust solution from the usual robust model and the adjustable robust solution from the adjustable robust model, respectively. A numerical experiment is conducted to demonstrate that the modeling advantage of the globalized robust optimization in terms of solution quality. The proposed globalized robust optimization approach may provide useful insights and have broader applicability in traffic management and traffic planning problems under uncertainty.