@misc{D'AndreagiovanniGleixner2016, author = {D'Andreagiovanni, Fabio and Gleixner, Ambros}, title = {Towards an accurate solution of wireless network design problems}, issn = {1438-0064}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-59010}, year = {2016}, abstract = {The optimal design of wireless networks has been widely studied in the literature and many optimization models have been proposed over the years. However, most models directly include the signal-to-interference ratios representing service coverage conditions. This leads to mixed-integer linear programs with constraint matrices containing tiny coefficients that vary widely in their order of magnitude. These formulations are known to be challenging even for state-of-the-art solvers: the standard numerical precision supported by these solvers is usually not sufficient to reliably guarantee feasible solutions. Service coverage errors are thus commonly present. Though these numerical issues are known and become evident even for small-sized instances, just a very limited number of papers has tried to tackle them, by mainly investigating alternative non-compact formulations in which the sources of numerical instabilities are eliminated. In this work, we explore a new approach by investigating how recent advances in exact solution algorithms for linear and mixed-integer programs over the rational numbers can be applied to analyze and tackle the numerical difficulties arising in wireless network design models.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{D'AndreagiovanniMettPulaj2016, author = {D'Andreagiovanni, Fabio and Mett, Fabian and Pulaj, Jonad}, title = {An (MI)LP-based Primal Heuristic for 3-Architecture Connected Facility Location in Urban Access Network Design}, volume = {9597}, booktitle = {EvoApplications: European Conference on the Applications of Evolutionary Computation. Applications of Evolutionary Computation. 19th European Conference, EvoApplications 2016, Porto, Portugal, March 30 -- April 1, 2016, Proceedings, Part I}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-319-31204-0_19}, pages = {283 -- 298}, year = {2016}, abstract = {We investigate the 3-architecture Connected Facility Location Problem arising in the design of urban telecommunication access networks integrating wired and wireless technologies. We propose an original optimization model for the problem that includes additional variables and constraints to take into account wireless signal coverage represented through signal-to-interference ratios. Since the problem can prove very challenging even for modern state-of-the art optimization solvers, we propose to solve it by an original primal heuristic that combines a probabilistic fixing procedure, guided by peculiar Linear Programming relaxations, with an exact MIP heuristic, based on a very large neighborhood search. Computational experiments on a set of realistic instances show that our heuristic can find solutions associated with much lower optimality gaps than a state-of-the-art solver.}, language = {en} } @misc{ConiglioGrimmKosteretal.2015, author = {Coniglio, Stefano and Grimm, Boris and Koster, Arie M.C.A. and Tieves, Martin and Werner, Axel}, title = {Optimal offline virtual network embedding with rent-at-bulk aspects}, arxiv = {http://arxiv.org/abs/1501.07887}, pages = {9}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Network virtualization techniques allow for the coexistence of many virtual networks (VNs) jointly sharing the resources of an underlying substrate network. The Virtual Network Embedding problem (VNE) arises when looking for the most profitable set of VNs to embed onto the substrate. In this paper, we address the offline version of the problem. We propose a Mixed-Integer Linear Programming formulation to solve it to optimality which accounts for acceptance and rejection of virtual network requests, allowing for both splittable and unsplittable (single path) routing schemes. Our formulation also considers a Rent-at-Bulk (RaB) model for the rental of substrate capacities where economies of scale apply. To better emphasize the importance of RaB, we also compare our method to a baseline one which only takes RaB into account a posteriori, once a solution to VNE, oblivious to RaB, has been found. Computational experiments show the viability of our approach, stressing the relevance of addressing RaB directly with an exact formulation.}, language = {en} } @misc{D'AndreagiovanniNardin2015, author = {D'Andreagiovanni, Fabio and Nardin, Antonella}, title = {Towards the fast and robust optimal design of Wireless Body Area Networks}, issn = {1438-0064}, doi = {10.1016/j.asoc.2015.04.037}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-55475}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Wireless body area networks are wireless sensor networks whose adoption has recently emerged and spread in important healthcare applications, such as the remote monitoring of health conditions of patients. A major issue associated with the deployment of such networks is represented by energy consumption: in general, the batteries of the sensors cannot be easily replaced and recharged, so containing the usage of energy by a rational design of the network and of the routing is crucial. Another issue is represented by traffic uncertainty: body sensors may produce data at a variable rate that is not exactly known in advance, for example because the generation of data is event-driven. Neglecting traffic uncertainty may lead to wrong design and routing decisions, which may compromise the functionality of the network and have very bad effects on the health of the patients. In order to address these issues, in this work we propose the first robust optimization model for jointly optimizing the topology and the routing in body area networks under traffic uncertainty. Since the problem may result challenging even for a state-of-the-art optimization solver, we propose an original optimization algorithm that exploits suitable linear relaxations to guide a randomized fixing of the variables, supported by an exact large variable neighborhood search. Experiments on realistic instances indicate that our algorithm performs better than a state-of-the-art solver, fast producing solutions associated with improved optimality gaps.}, language = {en} } @article{D'AndreagiovanniNardin2015, author = {D'Andreagiovanni, Fabio and Nardin, Antonella}, title = {Towards the fast and robust optimal design of Wireless Body Area Networks}, volume = {37}, journal = {Applied Soft Computing}, publisher = {Elsevier}, doi = {10.1016/j.asoc.2015.04.037}, pages = {971 -- 982}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Wireless body area networks are wireless sensor networks whose adoption has recently emerged and spread in important healthcare applications, such as the remote monitoring of health conditions of patients. A major issue associated with the deployment of such networks is represented by energy consumption: in general, the batteries of the sensors cannot be easily replaced and recharged, so containing the usage of energy by a rational design of the network and of the routing is crucial. Another issue is represented by traffic uncertainty: body sensors may produce data at a variable rate that is not exactly known in advance, for example because the generation of data is event-driven. Neglecting traffic uncertainty may lead to wrong design and routing decisions, which may compromise the functionality of the network and have very bad effects on the health of the patients. In order to address these issues, in this work we propose the first robust optimization model for jointly optimizing the topology and the routing in body area networks under traffic uncertainty. Since the problem may result challenging even for a state-of-the-art optimization solver, we propose an original optimization algorithm that exploits suitable linear relaxations to guide a randomized fixing of the variables, supported by an exact large variable neighborhood search. Experiments on realistic instances indicate that our algorithm performs better than a state-of-the-art solver, fast producing solutions associated with improved optimality gaps.}, language = {en} }