Solving the Ring Loading Problem Using Genetic Algorithms with Intelligent Multiple Operators

Planning optical communication networks suggests a number of new optimization problems, most of them in the field of combinatorial optimization. We address here the Ring Loading Problem. The objective of the problem is to find a routing scheme such that the maximum weighted load on the ring is minimized. In this paper we consider two variants: (i) demands can be split into two parts, and then each part is sent in a different direction; (ii) each demand must be entirely routed in either of the two directions, clockwise or counterclockwise. In this paper, we propose a genetic algorithm employing multiple crossover and mutation operators. Two sets of available crossover and mutation operators are established initially. In each generation a crossover method is selected for recombination and a mutation method is selected for mutation based on the amount fitness improvements achieve over a number of previous operations (recombinations/mutations). We use tournament selection for this purpose. Simulation results with the different methods implemented are compared.