Comparison of Selected Fair-optimization Methods for Flow Maximization between Given Pairs of Nodes in Telecommunications Network

Dimensioning of telecommunications networks requires the allocation of the flows (bandwidth) to given traffic demands for the source-destination pairs of nodes. Unit flow allocated to the given demand is associated with revenue that may vary for different demands. Problem the decision-making basic algorithms to maximize the total revenue may lead to the solutions that are unacceptable, due to “starvation” or “locking” of some demand paths less attractive with respect to the total revenue. Therefore, the fair optimization approaches must be applied. In this paper, two fair optimization methods are analyzed: the method of ordered weighted average (OWA) and the reference point method (RPM). The study assumes that flows can be bifurcated thus realized in multiple path schemes. To implement optimization model the AMPL was used with general-purpose linear programming solvers. As an example of the data, the Polish backbone network was used. Keywords—allocation problem, decision problems, fair-optimization, linear programming, multi-criteria, networks, ordered weighted averaging, OWA, reference point method, RPM.

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