90C57 Polyhedral combinatorics, branch-and-bound, branch-and-cut
Given a general mixed integer program (MIP), we automatically detect block structures in the constraint matrix together with the coupling by capacity constraints arising from multi-commodity flow formulations. We
identify the underlying graph and generate cutting planes based on cuts in the detected network. Our implementation adds a separator to the branch-and-cut libraries of SCIP and CPLEX. We make use of the complemented mixed integer rounding framework (cMIR) but provide a special purpose aggregation heuristic that exploits the network structure. Our separation scheme speeds-up the computation for a large set of MIPs coming from network design problems
by a factor of two on average.
This paper discusses how to build a solver for mixed integer quadratically constrained programs (MIQCPs) by extending a framework for constraint integer programming (CIP). The advantage of this approach is that we can utilize the full power of advanced MIP and CP technologies. In particular, this addresses the linear relaxation and the discrete components of the problem. For relaxation, we use an outer approximation generated by linearization of convex constraints and linear underestimation of nonconvex constraints. Further, we give an overview of the reformulation, separation, and propagation techniques that are used to handle the quadratic constraints efficiently.
We implemented these methods in the branch-cut-and-price framework SCIP. Computational experiments indicates the potential of the approach.
Pseudo-Boolean problems lie on the border between satisfiability problems, constraint programming, and integer programming. In particular, nonlinear constraints in pseudo-Boolean optimization can be handled by methods arising in these different fields: One can either linearize them and work on a linear programming relaxation or one can treat them directly by propagation. In this paper, we investigate the individual strengths of these approaches and compare their computational performance. Furthermore, we integrate these techniques into a branch-and-cut-and-propagate framework, resulting in an efficient nonlinear pseudo-Boolean solver.
Hybrid Branching
(2009)
State-of-the-art solvers for Constraint Satisfaction Problems (CSP), Mixed Integer Programs (MIP), and
satisfiability problems (SAT) are usually based on a branch-and-bound algorithm.
The question how to split a problem into subproblems (\emph{branching}) is in the core of any branch-and-bound algorithm.
Branching on individual variables is very common in CSP, MIP, and SAT. The rules, however, which variable to choose for
branching, differ significantly. In this paper, we present hybrid branching, which combines selection rules from all three fields.
In this article we study capacitated network design problems. We unify and extend polyhedral results for directed, bidirected and undirected link capacity models. Based on valid inequalities for a network cut we show that regardless of the link capacity model, facets of the polyhedra associated with such a cut translate to facets of the original network design polyhedra if the two subgraphs defined by the network cut are (strongly) connected. Our investigation of the facial structure of the cutset polyhedra allows to complement existing polyhedral results for the three variants by presenting facet-defining flow-cutset inequalities in a unifying way. In addition, we present a new class of facet-defining inequalities, showing as well that flow-cutset inequalities alone do not suffice to give a complete description for single-commodity, single-module cutset polyhedra in the bidirected and undirected case – in contrast to a known result for the directed case. The practical importance of the theoretical investigations is highlighted in an extensive computational study on 27 instances from the Survivable Network Design Library (SNDlib).
Orbitopes can be used to handle symmetries which arise in integer programming formulations with an inherent assignment
structure.
We investigate the detection of symmetries appearing in this approach.
We show that detecting so-called orbitopal symmetries is graph-isomorphism hard in general, but can be performed in linear
time if the assignment structure is known.
We study a planning problem arising in SDH/WDM multi-layer telecommunication network design. The goal is to find a minimum cost
installation of link and node hardware of both network layers such that traffic demands can be realized via grooming and a survivable routing. We present a mixed-integer programming formulation that takes many practical side constraints into account, including node hardware, several bitrates, and survivability against single physical node or link failures. This model is solved using a branch-and-cut approach with problem-specific preprocessing and cutting planes based on either of the two layers. On several realistic two-layer planning scenarios, we show that these cutting planes are still useful in the multi-layer context,
helping to increase the dual bound and to reduce the optimality gaps.
This paper deals with MIP-based primal heuristics to be used within a branch-and-cut approach for solving multi-layer telecommunication network design problems. Based on a mixed-integer programming formulation for two network layers, we present three heuristics for solving important subproblems, two of which solve a sub-MIP. On multi-layer planning instances with many parallel logical links, we show the effectiveness of our heuristics in finding good solutions early in the branch-and-cut search tree.
We introduce orbitopes as the convex hulls of 0/1-matrices that are lexicographically maximal subject to a group acting on the
columns. Special cases are packing and partitioning orbitopes, which
arise from restrictions to matrices with at most or exactly one 1-entry
in each row, respectively. The goal of investigating these polytopes is to
gain insight into ways of breaking certain symmetries in integer programs
by adding constraints, e.g., for a well-known formulation of the graph
coloring problem.
We provide a thorough polyhedral investigation of packing and partitioning orbitopes for the cases in which the group acting on the columns
is the cyclic group or the symmetric group. Our main results are complete linear inequality descriptions of these polytopes by facet-defining
inequalities. For the cyclic group case, the descriptions turn out to be
totally unimodular, while for the symmetric group case both the description and the proof are more involved. Nevertheless, the associated
separation problem can be solved in linear time also in this case.