Transportation on Networks

Abstract

This chapter considers the optimal network flow problem, which is a generalization of the optimal assignment problem considered in Chapter 3. In optimal flow problems, one considers a network of cities, or edges, to move a distribution of mass on supply nodes to a distribution of mass on demand nodes. The difference from a standard optimal assignment problem is that the matching surplus associated with moving from a supply location to a demand location is not necessarily directly defined; instead, there are several paths from the supply location to the demand location, among these some yield maximal surplus. Therefore, both the optimal assignment problem and the shortest path problem are instances of the optimal flow problem; these instances are representative in the sense that any optimal flow problem may be decomposed into an assignment problem and a number of shortest path problems. The chapter shows how to easily compute these problems using linear programming.