Network optimization techniques

This chapter is devoted to modeling and optimization techniques applicable to communication network design and planning. The main emphasis is put on the models dealing with optimization of the capacity of network resources and traffic routing that lead to tractable optimization problems. It is a common belief that the right means for such modeling are multicommodity flow networks (MFN). MFN form a field of operations research on its own, and are closely connected to integer programming. In consequence, the presented chapter aims at giving a systematic survey of basic MFN models and integer programming methods applicable to communication network design.