TY - GEN A1 - Gamrath, Gerald A1 - Schubert, Christoph T1 - Measuring the impact of branching rules for mixed-integer programming N2 - Branching rules are an integral component of the branch-and-bound algorithm typically used to solve mixed-integer programs and subject to intense research. Different approaches for branching are typically compared based on the solving time as well as the size of the branch-and-bound tree needed to prove optimality. The latter, however, has some flaws when it comes to sophisticated branching rules that do not only try to take a good branching decision, but have additional side-effects. We propose a new measure for the quality of a branching rule that distinguishes tree size reductions obtained by better branching decisions from those obtained by such side-effects. It is evaluated for common branching rules providing new insights in the importance of strong branching. T3 - ZIB-Report - 17-34 KW - mixed-integer programming KW - branch-and-bound KW - branching rule KW - strong branching Y1 - 2017 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-zib/frontdoor/index/index/docId/6472 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-64722 SN - 1438-0064 ER -