Abstract
The multi-transshipment problem is NP-hard already for two commodities over bipartite networks. Nonetheless, using our recent theory of n-fold integer programming and extensions developed herein, we are able to establish the polynomial time solvability of the problem in two broad situations. First, for any fixed number of commodities and number of suppliers, we solve the problem over bipartite networks with variable number of consumers in polynomial time. This is very natural in operations research applications where few facilities serve many customers. Second, for every fixed network, we solve the problem with variable number of commodities in polynomial time.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 13-25 |
Number of pages | 13 |
Journal | Optimization Letters |
Volume | 5 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Feb 2011 |
Keywords
- Combinatorial optimization
- Convex optimization
- Discrete optimization
- Graver basis
- Integer programming
- Multicommodity flow
- N-fold product
- Nonlinear optimization
- Transportation problem