Minimum concave-cost network flow problems: Applications, complexity, and algorithms

We discuss a wide range of results for minimum concave-cost network flow problems, including related applications, complexity issues, and solution techniques. Applications from production and inventory planning, and transportation and communication network design are discussed. New complexity results are proved which show that this problem is NP-hard for cases with cost functions other than fixed charge. An overview of solution techniques for this problem is presented, with some new results given regarding the implementation of a particular branch-and-bound approach.

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