Reliable Network Design Using Hybrid Genetic Algorithm Based on Multi-Ring Encoding

Abstract

Designing an inexpensive but reliable network is an important problem in many engineering applications such as transportation, telecommunication, and computer networks. This problem belongs to the class of NP-hard problems and lots of research works have been performed to develop a practical and efficient heuristic algorithm. This chapter surveys up-to-date research efforts to address the reliable network design problem and proposes a new hybrid heuristic of the genetic algorithm and local search ant colony system. The proposed hybrid heuristic represents a twoedge- connected candidate network as multiple rings. The genetic algorithm evolves a population of multi-ring-encoded individuals with special genetic operators while the local search ant colony system fine-tunes each ring. The results of computer experiments show the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed hybrid heuristic.