TY - GEN A1 - Eisenblätter, Andreas A1 - Koster, Arie M.C.A. A1 - Wallbaum, Randolf A1 - Wessäly, Roland T1 - Load Balancing in Signaling Transfer Points N2 - Signaling is crucial to the operation of modern telecommunication networks. A breakdown in the signaling infrastructure typically causes customer service failures, incurs revenue losses, and hampers the company image. Therefore, the signaling network has to be highest reliability and survivability. This in particular holds for the routers in such a network, called \textit{signaling transfer points\/} (STPs). The robustness of an STP can be improved by equally distributing the load over the internal processing units. Several constraints have to be taken into account. The load of the links connected to a processing unit changes over time introducing an imbalance of the load. In this paper, we show how integer linear programming can be applied to reduce the imbalance within an STP, while keeping the number of changes small. Two alternative models are presented. Computational experiments validate the integer programming approach in practice. The GSM network operator E-Plus saves substantial amounts of time and money by employing the proposed approach. T3 - ZIB-Report - 02-50 KW - Signaling network KW - STP KW - load-balancing KW - integer programming KW - computations Y1 - 2002 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-7179 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Zymolka, Adrian A1 - Koster, Arie M.C.A. A1 - Wessäly, Roland T1 - Transparent optical network design with sparse wavelength conversion N2 - We consider the design of transparent optical networks from a practical perspective. Network operators aim at satisfying the communication demands at minimum cost. Such an optimization involves three interdependent planning issues: the dimensioning of the physical topology, the routing of lightpaths, and the wavelength assignment. Further topics include the reliability of the configuration and sparse wavelength conversion for efficient use of the capacities. In this paper, we investigate this extensive optical network design task. Using a flexible device-based model, we present an integer programming formulation that supports greenfield planning as well as expansion planning on top of an existing network. As solution method, we propose a suitable decomposition approach that separates the wavelength assignment from the dimensioning and routing. Our method in particular provides a lower bound on the total cost which allows to rate the solution quality. Computational experiments on realistic networks approve the solution approach to be appropriate. T3 - ZIB-Report - 02-34 KW - optical network design KW - wavelength conversion KW - integer programming Y1 - 2002 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-7017 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Eisenblätter, Andreas A1 - Fügenschuh, Armin A1 - Koch, Thorsten A1 - Koster, Arie M.C.A. A1 - Martin, Alexander A1 - Pfender, Tobias A1 - Wegel, Oliver A1 - Wessäly, Roland T1 - Modelling Feasible Network Configurations for UMTS N2 - A model for the optimisation of the location and configuration of base stations in a UMTS network is described. The focus is primarily on modelling the configuration problem sufficiently accurate using mixed-integer variables and (essentially) linear constraints. These constraints reflect the limited downlink code capacity in each cell, the interference limitations for successful up- and downlink transmissions, the need for sufficiently strong (cell) pilot signals, and the potential gain for mobiles from being in soft(er) hand-over. It is also explained how to use the model as a basis for rating network configurations. T3 - ZIB-Report - 02-16 KW - UMTS KW - radio interface KW - network planning KW - configuration KW - perfect power control KW - mathematical model KW - mixed integer programming KW - MOMENTUM KW - IST-20 Y1 - 2002 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-6837 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Koster, Arie M.C.A. A1 - Zymolka, Adrian A1 - Jäger, Monika A1 - Hülsermann, Ralf A1 - Gerlach, Christoph T1 - Demand-wise Shared Protection for Meshed Optical Networks N2 - In this paper, a new shared protection mechanism for meshed optical networks is presented. Significant network design cost reductions can be achieved in comparison to the well-known 1+1 protection scheme. Demand-wise Shared Protection (DSP) bases on the diversification of demand routings and exploits the network connectivity to restrict the number of backup lightpaths needed to provide the desired level of prorection. Computational experiments approve the benefits of the concept DSP for cost efficient optical network designs. T3 - ZIB-Report - 03-24 KW - optical network design KW - shared protection KW - meshed optical networks KW - diversification Y1 - 2003 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-7461 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Koster, Arie M.C.A. A1 - Zymolka, Adrian T1 - Minimum Converter Wavelength Assignment in All-Optical Networks N2 - Finding conflict-free wavelength assignments with a minimum number of required conversions for a routing of the lightpaths is one of the important tasks within the design of all-optical networks. We consider this problem in multi-fiber networks with different types of WDM systems. We give a detailed description of the problem and derive its theoretical complexity. For practical application, we propose several sequential algorithms to compute appropriate wavelength assignments. We also perform computational experiments to evaluate their performance. For the iterative algorithms, we identify characteristic patterns of progression. Two of these algorithms qualify for application in practice. T3 - ZIB-Report - 03-45 KW - minimum converter wavelength assignment KW - optical networks KW - generalized coloring KW - complexity KW - heuristics Y1 - 2003 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-7673 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Koster, Arie M.C.A. T1 - Wavelength Assignment in Multi-Fiber WDM Networks by Generalized Edge Coloring N2 - In this paper, we study wavelength assignment problems in multi-fiber WDM networks. We focus on the special case that all lightpaths have at most two links. This in particular holds in case the network topology is a star. As the links incident to a specific node in a meshed topology form a star subnetwork, results for stars are also of interest for general meshed topologies. We show that wavelength assignment with at most two links per lightpath can be modeled as a generalized edge coloring problem. By this relation, we show that for a network with an even number of fibers at all links and at most two links per lightpath, all lightpaths can be assigned a wavelength without conversion. Moreover, we derive a lower bound on the number of lightpaths to be converted for networks with arbitrary numbers of fibers at the links. A comparison with linear programming lower bounds reveals that the bounds coincide for problems with at most two links per lightpath. For meshed topologies, the cumulative lower bound over all star subnetworks equals the best known solution value for all realistic wavelength assignment instances available, by this proving optimality. T3 - ZIB-Report - 05-13 KW - wavelength assignment KW - optical networks KW - graph theory KW - combinatorial optimization KW - integer programming Y1 - 2005 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-8478 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Bodlaender, Hans L. A1 - Koster, Arie M.C.A. A1 - Wolle, Thomas T1 - Contraction and Treewidth Lower Bounds N2 - Edge contraction is shown to be a useful mechanism to improve lower bound heuristics for treewidth. A successful lower bound for treewidth is the degeneracy: the maximum over all subgraphs of the minimum degree. The degeneracy is polynomial time computable. We introduce the notion of contraction degeneracy: the maximum over all minors of the minimum degree. We show that the contraction degeneracy problem is NP-complete, even for bipartite graphs, but for fixed $k$, it is polynomial time decidable if a given graph $G$ has contraction degeneracy at least $k$. Heuristics for computing the contraction degeneracy are proposed and evaluated. It is shown that these can lead in practice to considerable improvements of the lower bound for treewidth, but can perform arbitrarily bad on some examples. A study is also made for the combination of contraction with Lucena's lower bound based on Maximum Cardinality Search (Lucena, 2003). Finally, heuristics for the treewidth are proposed and! evaluated that combine contraction with a treewidth lower bound technique by Clautiaux et al (2003). T3 - ZIB-Report - 04-29 KW - treewidth KW - contraction degeneracy KW - graph minors KW - lower bounds KW - maximum cardinality search Y1 - 2004 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-8042 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Koster, Arie M.C.A. T1 - Re-Optimization of Signaling Transfer Points N2 - In this paper we describe the results of a computational study towards the (re)optimization of signaling transfer points (STPs) in telecommunication networks. The best performance of an STP is achieved whenever the traffic load is evenly distributed among the internal components. Due to the continuously changing traffic pattern, the load of the components has to be re-optimized on a regular basis. Besides the balancing objective also the number of rearrangements have to be taken into account. In this paper we present two alternative formulations to deal with both requirements. Computational results show that for both formulations (near) optimal solutions can be obtained within reasonable time limits. T3 - ZIB-Report - 00-18 KW - Telecommunications KW - Modeling KW - Integer Programming Y1 - 2000 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-5863 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Eisenblätter, Andreas A1 - Grötschel, Martin A1 - Koster, Arie M.C.A. T1 - Frequency Planning and Ramifications of Coloring N2 - This paper surveys frequency assignment problems coming up in planning wireless communication services. It particularly focuses on cellular mobile phone systems such as GSM, a technology that revolutionizes communication. Traditional vertex coloring provides a conceptual framework for the mathematical modeling of many frequency planning problems. This basic form, however, needs various extensions to cover technical and organizational side constraints. Among these ramifications are $T$-coloring and list coloring. To model all the subtleties, the techniques of integer programming have proven to be very useful. The ability to produce good frequency plans in practice is essential for the quality of mobile phone networks. The present algorithmic solution methods employ variants of some of the traditional coloring heuristics as well as more sophisticated machinery from mathematical programming. This paper will also address this issue. Finally, this paper discusses several practical frequency assignment problems in detail, states the associated mathematical models, and also points to public electronic libraries of frequency assignment problems from practice. The associated graphs have up to several thousand nodes and range from rather sparse to almost complete. T3 - ZIB-Report - 00-47 KW - frequency assignment KW - graph coloring Y1 - 2000 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-6152 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Eisenblätter, Andreas A1 - Grötschel, Martin A1 - Koster, Arie M.C.A. T1 - Frequenzplanung im Mobilfunk N2 - Telekommunikation ist seit Jahren \glqq in\grqq. Zunächst gab es einen enormen Aufschwung; neue Technologien und Dienste haben eine überwältigende, nicht vorhersehbare Akzeptanz gefunden. Derzeit ist -- ausgelöst durch die UMTS-Lizenzversteigerungen, Rezessions- und Sättigungstendenzen -- eine Krise zu verzeichnen. Viele (auch wir) sind davon überzeugt, dass technischer Fortschritt und nützliche Dienste demnächst die Stimmung wieder ändern werden. Wenigen ist allerdings bewusst, welche Rolle Mathematik bei der Entwicklung und dem effizienten Einsatz vieler der neuen Kommunikationstechnologien spielt. In diesem Artikel soll kein Überblick über diesen umfangreichen Themenkreis gegeben werden. Wir zeigen lediglich an einem konkreten Beispiel aus dem Mobilfunk, der Frequenzplanung in GSM-Funknetzen, was man durch geeignete Modellierung der praktischen Fragestellung und den Einsatz problemadäquater Algorithmen erreichen kann. T3 - ZIB-Report - 02-09 KW - Telekommunikation KW - Frequenzplanung KW - Mobilfunk KW - GSM-Funknetze Y1 - 2002 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-6762 ER -