Auction Algorithms

The auction algorithm is an intuitive method for solving the classical assignment problem. It outperforms substantially its main competitors for important types of problems, both in theory and in practice, and is also naturally well suited for parallel computation. In this article, we will skecth the basic principles of the algorithm, we will explain its computational properties, and we will discuss its extensions to more general network flow problems. For a detailed presentation, we refer to the survey paper [Ber92] and the author’s textbooks [Ber91], [Ber98]. For an extensive computational study, we refer to Castañon [Cas93]. The algorithm was first proposed in a 1979 report by the author [Ber79].