Interfaces In Computer Science And Operations Research

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Interfaces in Computer Science and Operations Research

Author : R. S. Barr
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 1461541026
Total Pages : 443 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (615 download)

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Book Synopsis Interfaces in Computer Science and Operations Research by : R. S. Barr

Download or read book Interfaces in Computer Science and Operations Research written by R. S. Barr and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 443 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The disciplines of computer science and operations research (OR) have been linked since their origins, each contributing to the dramatic advances of the other. This work explores the connections between these key technologies: how high-performance computing methods have led to advances in OR de ployment, and how OR has contributed to the design and development of ad vanced systems. The collected writings-from researchers and practitioners in Computer Science, Operations Research, Management Science, and Artificial Intelligence-were among those delivered at the Fifth INFORMS Computer Science Technical Section Conference in Dallas, Texas, January 8-10, 1996. The articles advance both theory and practice. Presented are new approaches to complex problems based on: metaheuristics (neural networks, genetic al gorithms, and Tabu Search), optimization and mathematical programming, stochastic methods, constraint programming, and logical analysis. These ad vanced methodologies are applied to new applications in such areas as: telecom munications network design, financial engineering, manufacturing, project man agement, and forecasting, airline and machine scheduling, vehicle routing, mod eling and decision support systems. Featured is a remarkable paper by keynote speaker Fred Glover, creator of the Tabu Search family of metaheuristics. In it he develops the principles of memory-based heuristic methods, contrasts them with the popular genetic algorithms and simulated annealing, provides a sweeping survey of application vignettes, and points to promising avenues for future research.

Computer Science and Operations Research: New Developments in their Interfaces

Author : Osman Balci
Publisher : Elsevier
ISBN 13 : 1483297861
Total Pages : 548 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (832 download)

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Book Synopsis Computer Science and Operations Research: New Developments in their Interfaces by : Osman Balci

Download or read book Computer Science and Operations Research: New Developments in their Interfaces written by Osman Balci and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2014-05-23 with total page 548 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The interface of Operation Research and Computer Science - although elusive to a precise definition - has been a fertile area of both methodological and applied research. The papers in this book, written by experts in their respective fields, convey the current state-of-the-art in this interface across a broad spectrum of research domains which include optimization techniques, linear programming, interior point algorithms, networks, computer graphics in operations research, parallel algorithms and implementations, planning and scheduling, genetic algorithms, heuristic search techniques and data retrieval.

Advances in Computational and Stochastic Optimization, Logic Programming, and Heuristic Search

Author : David L. Woodruff
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 1475728077
Total Pages : 315 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (757 download)

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Book Synopsis Advances in Computational and Stochastic Optimization, Logic Programming, and Heuristic Search by : David L. Woodruff

Download or read book Advances in Computational and Stochastic Optimization, Logic Programming, and Heuristic Search written by David L. Woodruff and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-03-14 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Computer Science and Operations Research continue to have a synergistic relationship and this book - as a part of the Operations Research and Computer Science Interface Series - sits squarely in the center of the confluence of these two technical research communities. The research presented in the volume is evidence of the expanding frontiers of these two intersecting disciplines and provides researchers and practitioners with new work in the areas of logic programming, stochastic optimization, heuristic search and post-solution analysis for integer programs. The chapter topics span the spectrum of application level. Some of the chapters are highly applied and others represent work in which the application potential is only beginning. In addition, each chapter contains expository material and reviews of the literature designed to enhance the participation of the reader in this expanding interface.

Operations Research and Cyber-Infrastructure

Author : John W. Chinneck
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 0387888438
Total Pages : 460 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (878 download)

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Book Synopsis Operations Research and Cyber-Infrastructure by : John W. Chinneck

Download or read book Operations Research and Cyber-Infrastructure written by John W. Chinneck and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2009-01-05 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Operations Research and Cyber-Infrastructure is the companion volume to the Eleventh INFORMS Computing Society Conference (ICS 2009), held in Charleston, South Carolina, from January 11 to 13, 2009. It includes 24 high-quality refereed research papers. As always, the focus of interest for ICS is the interface between Operations Research and Computer Science, and the papers in this volume reflect that interest. This is naturally an evolving area as computational power increases rapidly while decreasing in cost even more quickly, and the papers included here illustrate the wide range of topics at this interface.

Computing Tools for Modeling, Optimization and Simulation

Author : Manuel Laguna
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 1461545676
Total Pages : 318 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (615 download)

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Book Synopsis Computing Tools for Modeling, Optimization and Simulation by : Manuel Laguna

Download or read book Computing Tools for Modeling, Optimization and Simulation written by Manuel Laguna and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Computing Tools for Modeling, Optimization and Simulation reflects the need for preserving the marriage between operations research and computing in order to create more efficient and powerful software tools in the years ahead. The 17 papers included in this volume were carefully selected to cover a wide range of topics related to the interface between operations research and computer science. The volume includes the now perennial applications of rnetaheuristics (such as genetic algorithms, scatter search, and tabu search) as well as research on global optimization, knowledge management, software rnaintainability and object-oriented modeling. These topics reflect the complexity and variety of the problems that current and future software tools must be capable of tackling. The OR/CS interface is frequently at the core of successful applications and the development of new methodologies, making the research in this book a relevant reference in the future. The editors' goal for this book has been to increase the interest in the interface of computer science and operations research. Both researchers and practitioners will benefit from this book. The tutorial papers may spark the interest of practitioners for developing and applying new techniques to complex problems. In addition, the book includes papers that explore new angles of well-established methods for problems in the area of nonlinear optimization and mixed integer programming, which seasoned researchers in these fields may find fascinating.

Scheduling of Resource-Constrained Projects

Author : Robert Klein
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 9780792386377
Total Pages : 394 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (863 download)

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Book Synopsis Scheduling of Resource-Constrained Projects by : Robert Klein

Download or read book Scheduling of Resource-Constrained Projects written by Robert Klein and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 1999-11-30 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Project management has become a widespread instrument enabling organizations to efficiently master the challenges of steadily shortening product life cycles, global markets and decreasing profit margins. With projects increasing in size and complexity, their planning and control represents one of the most crucial management tasks. This is especially true for scheduling, which is concerned with establishing execution dates for the sub-activities to be performed in order to complete the project. The ability to manage projects where resources must be allocated between concurrent projects or even sub-activities of a single project requires the use of commercial project management software packages. However, the results yielded by the solution procedures included are often rather unsatisfactory. Scheduling of Resource-Constrained Projects develops more efficient procedures, which can easily be integrated into software packages by incorporated programming languages, and thus should be of great interest for practitioners as well as scientists working in the field of project management. The book is divided into two parts. In Part I, the project management process is described and the management tasks to be accomplished during project planning and control are discussed. This allows for identifying the major scheduling problems arising in the planning process, among which the resource-constrained project scheduling problem is the most important. Part II deals with efficient computer-based procedures for the resource-constrained project scheduling problem and its generalized version. Since both problems are NP-hard, the development of such procedures which yield satisfactory solutions in a reasonable amount of computation time is very challenging, and a number of new and very promising approaches are introduced. This includes heuristic procedures based on priority rules and tabu search as well as lower bound methods and branch and bound procedures which can be applied for computing optimal solutions.

Computational Modeling and Problem Solving in the Networked World

Author : Hemant K. Bhargava
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 1461510430
Total Pages : 322 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (615 download)

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Book Synopsis Computational Modeling and Problem Solving in the Networked World by : Hemant K. Bhargava

Download or read book Computational Modeling and Problem Solving in the Networked World written by Hemant K. Bhargava and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a compilation of a selected subset of research articles presented at the Eighth INFORMS Computing Society Conference, held in Chandler, Arizona, from January 8 to 10, 2003. The articles in this book represent the diversity and depth of the interface between ORiMS (operations research and the management sciences) and CS/AI (computer science and artificial intelligence ). This volume starts with two papers that represent the reflective and integrative thinking that is critical to any scientific discipline. These two articles present philosophical perspectives on computation, covering a variety of traditional and newer methods for modeling, solving, and explaining mathematical models. The next set includes articles that study machine learning and computational heuristics, and is followed by articles that address issues in performance testing of solution algorithms and heuristics. These two sets of papers demonstrate the richness of thought that takes place at the ORiMS and CSI AI interface. The final set of articles demonstrates the usefulness of these and other methods at the interface towards solving problems in the real world, covering e-commerce, workflow, electronic negotiation, music, parallel computation, and telecommunications. The articles in this collection represent the results of cross-fertilization between ORiMS and CSI AI, making possible advances that could have not been achieved in isolation. The continuing aim ofthe INFORMS Computing Society and this research conference is to invigorate and further develop this interface.

Metaheuristics

Author : Karl F. Doerner
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 0387719210
Total Pages : 409 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (877 download)

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Book Synopsis Metaheuristics by : Karl F. Doerner

Download or read book Metaheuristics written by Karl F. Doerner and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-08-13 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book’s aim is to provide several different kinds of information: a delineation of general metaheuristics methods, a number of state-of-the-art articles from a variety of well-known classical application areas as well as an outlook to modern computational methods in promising new areas. Therefore, this book may equally serve as a textbook in graduate courses for students, as a reference book for people interested in engineering or social sciences, and as a collection of new and promising avenues for researchers working in this field.

Telecommunications Network Design and Management

Author : G. Anandalingam
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 1475737629
Total Pages : 338 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (757 download)

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Book Synopsis Telecommunications Network Design and Management by : G. Anandalingam

Download or read book Telecommunications Network Design and Management written by G. Anandalingam and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-04-17 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Telecommunications Network Design And Management represents the state-of-the-art of applying operations research techniques and solutions across a broad spectrum of telecommunications problems and implementation issues. -The first three chapters of the book deal with the design of wireless networks, including UMTS and Ad-Hoc networks. -Chapters 4-6 deal with the optimal design of telecommunications networks. Techniques used for network design range from genetic algorithms to combinatorial optimization heuristics. -Chapters 7-10 analyze traffic flow in telecommunications networks, focusing on optimizing traffic load distribution and the scheduling of switches under multi-media streams and heavy traffic. -Chapters 11-14 deal with telecommunications network management, examining bandwidth provisioning, admission control, queue management, dynamic routing, and feedback regulation in order to ensure that the network performance is optimized. -Chapters 15-16 deal with the construction of topologies and allocation of bandwidth to ensure quality-of-service.

Linguistic Geometry

Author : Boris Stilman
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 1461544394
Total Pages : 403 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (615 download)

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Book Synopsis Linguistic Geometry by : Boris Stilman

Download or read book Linguistic Geometry written by Boris Stilman and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 403 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Linguistic Geometry: From Search to Construction is the first book of its kind. Linguistic Geometry (LG) is an approach to the construction of mathematical models for large-scale multi-agent systems. A number of such systems, including air/space combat, robotic manufacturing, software re-engineering and Internet cyberwar, can be modeled as abstract board games. These are games with moves that can be represented by the movement of abstract pieces over locations on an abstract board. The purpose of LG is to provide strategies to guide the games' participants to their goals. Traditionally, discovering such strategies required searches in giant game trees. These searches are often beyond the capacity of modern and even conceivable future computers. LG dramatically reduces the size of the search trees, making the problems computationally tractable. LG provides a formalization and abstraction of search heuristics used by advanced experts including chess grandmasters. Essentially, these heuristics replace search with the construction of strategies. To formalize the heuristics, LG employs the theory of formal languages (i.e. formal linguistics), as well as certain geometric structures over an abstract board. The new formal strategies solve problems from different domains far beyond the areas envisioned by the experts. For a number of these domains, Linguistic Geometry yields optimal solutions.

Handbook of Terminal Planning

Author : Jürgen W. Böse
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 1441984089
Total Pages : 433 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (419 download)

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Book Synopsis Handbook of Terminal Planning by : Jürgen W. Böse

Download or read book Handbook of Terminal Planning written by Jürgen W. Böse and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2011-02-26 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Container Terminals (CT) operate as central nodes in worldwide hub-and-spoke networks and link ocean-going vessels with smaller feeder vessels as well as with inbound and outbound hinterland transportation systems using road, rail, or inland waterways. The volume of transcontinental container flows has gained appreciably over the last five decades -- throughput figures of CT reached new records, frequently with double-digit annual growth rates. Stimulated by throughput requirements and stronger competition between terminals settled in the same region or serving a similar hinterland, respectively, cost efficiency and throughput capabilities become more and more important. Nowadays, both terminal capacity and costs have to be regarded as key indicators for CT competitiveness. In respect of this steady growth, this handbook focuses on planning activities being aimed at “order of magnitude improvements” in terminal performance and economic viability. On the one hand the book is intended to provide readership with technological and organizational CT basics for strategic planning. On the other hand this book offers methodical assistance for fundamental dimensioning of CT in terms of 'technique', 'organization' or 'man'. The former primarily considers comprehensive information about container handling technologies representing the state of the art for present terminal operations, while the latter refers to methodological support comprising in particular quantitative solutions and modeling techniques for strategic terminal decisions as well as straightforward design guidelines. The handbook includes an introductory contribution which gives an overview of strategic planning problems at CT and introduces the contributions of the volume with regard to their relationship in this field. Moreover, each paper contains a section or paragraph that describes the impact of findings investigated by the author(s) for problem-solving in long-term planning of CT (as an application domain). The handbook intends to provide solutions and insights that are valuable for both practitioners in industry who need effective planning approaches to overcome problems and weaknesses in terminal design/development and researchers who would like to inform themselves about the state of the art in methodology of strategic terminal planning or be inspired by new ideas. That is to say, the handbook is addressed to terminal planners in practice as well as to students of maritime courses of study and (application oriented) researchers in the maritime field.

Perspectives in Operations Research

Author : Frank B. Alt
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 0387399348
Total Pages : 428 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (873 download)

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Book Synopsis Perspectives in Operations Research by : Frank B. Alt

Download or read book Perspectives in Operations Research written by Frank B. Alt and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-12-26 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Symposium was held on February 25, 2006 in honor of the 80th birthday of Saul I. Gass and his major contributions to the field of operations research over 50 years. This volume includes articles from each of the Symposium speakers plus 16 other articles from friends, colleagues, and former students. Each contributor offers a forward-looking perspective on the future development of the field.

The Impact of Emerging Technologies on Computer Science and Operations Research

Author : Stephen G. Nash
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 1461522234
Total Pages : 321 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (615 download)

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Book Synopsis The Impact of Emerging Technologies on Computer Science and Operations Research by : Stephen G. Nash

Download or read book The Impact of Emerging Technologies on Computer Science and Operations Research written by Stephen G. Nash and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The emergence of high-performance computers and sophisticated software tech nology has led to significant advances in the development and application of operations research. In turn, the growing complexity of operations research models has posed an increasing challenge to computational methodology and computer technology. This volume focuses on recent advances in the fields of Computer Science and Operations Research, on the impact of technologi cal innovation on these disciplines, and on the close interaction between them. The papers cover many relevant topics: computational probability; design and analysis of algorithms; graphics; heuristic search and learning; knowledge-based systems; large-scale optimization; logic modeling and computation; modeling languages; parallel computation; simulation; and telecommunications. 1 This volume developed out of a conference held in Williamsburg, Virginia, January 5-7, 1994. It was sponsored by the Computer Science Technical Section of the Operations Research Society of America. The conference was attended by over 120 people from across the United States, and from many other countries. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the participants of the con ference, the authors, the anonymous referees, and the publisher for helping produce this volume. We express our special thanks to Bill Stewart and Ed Wasil for serving as Area Editors.

Genetic Algorithms and Fuzzy Multiobjective Optimization

Author : Masatoshi Sakawa
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 9780792374527
Total Pages : 306 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (745 download)

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Book Synopsis Genetic Algorithms and Fuzzy Multiobjective Optimization by : Masatoshi Sakawa

Download or read book Genetic Algorithms and Fuzzy Multiobjective Optimization written by Masatoshi Sakawa and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2002 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the introduction of genetic algorithms in the 1970s, an enormous number of articles together with several significant monographs and books have been published on this methodology. As a result, genetic algorithms have made a major contribution to optimization, adaptation, and learning in a wide variety of unexpected fields. Over the years, many excellent books in genetic algorithm optimization have been published; however, they focus mainly on single-objective discrete or other hard optimization problems under certainty. There appears to be no book that is designed to present genetic algorithms for solving not only single-objective but also fuzzy and multiobjective optimization problems in a unified way. Genetic Algorithms And Fuzzy Multiobjective Optimization introduces the latest advances in the field of genetic algorithm optimization for 0-1 programming, integer programming, nonconvex programming, and job-shop scheduling problems under multiobjectiveness and fuzziness. In addition, the book treats a wide range of actual real world applications. The theoretical material and applications place special stress on interactive decision-making aspects of fuzzy multiobjective optimization for human-centered systems in most realistic situations when dealing with fuzziness. The intended readers of this book are senior undergraduate students, graduate students, researchers, and practitioners in the fields of operations research, computer science, industrial engineering, management science, systems engineering, and other engineering disciplines that deal with the subjects of multiobjective programming for discrete or other hard optimization problems under fuzziness. Real world research applications are used throughout the book to illustrate the presentation. These applications are drawn from complex problems. Examples include flexible scheduling in a machine center, operation planning of district heating and cooling plants, and coal purchase planning in an actual electric power plant.

Encyclopedia of Operations Research and Management Science

Author : Saul I. Gass
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 1461304598
Total Pages : 774 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (613 download)

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Book Synopsis Encyclopedia of Operations Research and Management Science by : Saul I. Gass

Download or read book Encyclopedia of Operations Research and Management Science written by Saul I. Gass and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 774 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Operations Research: 1934-1941," 35, 1, 143-152; "British The goal of the Encyclopedia of Operations Research and Operational Research in World War II," 35, 3, 453-470; Management Science is to provide to decision makers and "U. S. Operations Research in World War II," 35, 6, 910-925; problem solvers in business, industry, government and and the 1984 article by Harold Lardner that appeared in academia a comprehensive overview of the wide range of Operations Research: "The Origin of Operational Research," ideas, methodologies, and synergistic forces that combine to 32, 2, 465-475. form the preeminent decision-aiding fields of operations re search and management science (OR/MS). To this end, we The Encyclopedia contains no entries that define the fields enlisted a distinguished international group of academics of operations research and management science. OR and MS and practitioners to contribute articles on subjects for are often equated to one another. If one defines them by the which they are renowned. methodologies they employ, the equation would probably The editors, working with the Encyclopedia's Editorial stand inspection. If one defines them by their historical Advisory Board, surveyed and divided OR/MS into specific developments and the classes of problems they encompass, topics that collectively encompass the foundations, applica the equation becomes fuzzy. The formalism OR grew out of tions, and emerging elements of this ever-changing field. We the operational problems of the British and U. s. military also wanted to establish the close associations that OR/MS efforts in World War II.

Scatter Search

Author : Manuel Laguna
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 146150337X
Total Pages : 291 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (615 download)

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Book Synopsis Scatter Search by : Manuel Laguna

Download or read book Scatter Search written by Manuel Laguna and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book Scatter Search by Manuel Laguna and Rafael Martí represents a long-awaited "missing link" in the literature of evolutionary methods. Scatter Search (SS)-together with its generalized form called Path Relinking-constitutes the only evolutionary approach that embraces a collection of principles from Tabu Search (TS), an approach popularly regarded to be divorced from evolutionary procedures. The TS perspective, which is responsible for introducing adaptive memory strategies into the metaheuristic literature (at purposeful level beyond simple inheritance mechanisms), may at first seem to be at odds with population-based approaches. Yet this perspective equips SS with a remarkably effective foundation for solving a wide range of practical problems. The successes documented by Scatter Search come not so much from the adoption of adaptive memory in the range of ways proposed in Tabu Search (except where, as often happens, SS is advantageously coupled with TS), but from the use of strategic ideas initially proposed for exploiting adaptive memory, which blend harmoniously with the structure of Scatter Search. From a historical perspective, the dedicated use of heuristic strategies both to guide the process of combining solutions and to enhance the quality of offspring has been heralded as a key innovation in evolutionary methods, giving rise to what are sometimes called "hybrid" (or "memetic") evolutionary procedures. The underlying processes have been introduced into the mainstream of evolutionary methods (such as genetic algorithms, for example) by a series of gradual steps beginning in the late 1980s.

Telecommunications Planning

Author : S. Raghavan
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 0387292349
Total Pages : 391 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (872 download)

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Book Synopsis Telecommunications Planning by : S. Raghavan

Download or read book Telecommunications Planning written by S. Raghavan and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-03-12 with total page 391 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited book serves as a companion volume to the Seventh INFORMS Telecommunications Conference held in Boca Raton, Florida, March 7-10, 2004. The 18 papers in this book were carefully selected after a thorough re view process. The research presented within these articles focuses on the latest methodological developments in three key areas—pricing of telecommunica tions services, network design, and resource allocation—that are most relevant to current telecommunications planning. With the global deregulation of the telecommunications industry, effective pricing and revenue management, as well as an understanding of competi tive pressures are key factors that will improve revenue in telecommunica tions companies. Chapters 1-5 address these topics by focusing on pricing of telecommunications services. They present some novel ideas related to pricing (including auction-based pricing of network bandwidth) and modeling compe tition in the industry. The successful telecommunications companies of the future will likely be the ones that can minimize their costs while meeting customer expectations. In this context the optimal design/provisioning of telecommunication networks plays an important role. Chapters 6-12 address these topics by focusing on net work design for a wide range of technologies including SONET, SDH, WDM, and MPLS. They include the latest research developments related to the mod eling and solving of network design problems. Day-to-day management/control of telecommunications networks is depen dent upon the optimal allocation of resources. Chapters 13-18 provide insight ful solutions to several intriguing resource allocation problems.