TY - GEN A1 - Orlowski, Sebastian A1 - Pioro, Michal A1 - Tomaszewski, Artur A1 - Wessäly, Roland T1 - SNDlib 1.0--Survivable Network Design Library N2 - We provide information on the Survivable Network Design Library (SNDlib), a data library for fixed telecommunication network design that can be accessed at http://sndlib.zib.de. In version 1.0, the library contains data related to 22 networks which, combined with a set of selected planning parameters, leads to 830 network planning problem instances. In this paper, we provide a mathematical model for each planning problem considered in the library and describe the data concepts of the SNDlib. Furthermore, we provide statistical information and details about the origin of the data sets. T3 - ZIB-Report - 07-15 KW - telecommunication network design KW - data library KW - optimization Y1 - 2007 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-9582 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Koch, Thorsten A1 - Ralphs, Ted A1 - Shinano, Yuji T1 - What could a million CPUs do to solve Integer Programs? N2 - Given the steady increase in cores per CPU, it is only a matter of time until supercomputers will have a million or more cores. In this article, we investigate the opportunities and challenges that will arise when trying to utilize this vast computing power to solve a single integer linear optimization problem. We also raise the question of whether best practices in sequential solution of ILPs will be effective in massively parallel environments. T3 - ZIB-Report - 11-40 Y1 - 2011 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-14222 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Koch, Thorsten A1 - Achterberg, Tobias A1 - Andersen, Erling A1 - Bastert, Oliver A1 - Berthold, Timo A1 - Bixby, Robert E. A1 - Danna, Emilie A1 - Gamrath, Gerald A1 - Gleixner, Ambros A1 - Heinz, Stefan A1 - Lodi, Andrea A1 - Mittelmann, Hans A1 - Ralphs, Ted A1 - Salvagnin, Domenico A1 - Steffy, Daniel A1 - Wolter, Kati T1 - MIPLIB 2010 N2 - This paper reports on the fifth version of the Mixed Integer Programming Library. The MIPLIB 2010 is the first MIPLIB release that has been assembled by a large group from academia and from industry, all of whom work in integer programming. There was mutual consent that the concept of the library had to be expanded in order to fulfill the needs of the community. The new version comprises 361 instances sorted into several groups. This includes the main benchmark test set of 87 instances, which are all solvable by today's codes, and also the challenge test set with 164 instances, many of which are currently unsolved. For the first time, we include scripts to run automated tests in a predefined way. Further, there is a solution checker to test the accuracy of provided solutions using exact arithmetic. T3 - ZIB-Report - 10-31 KW - Mixed Integer Programming KW - Problem Instances KW - IP KW - MIP KW - MIPLIB Y1 - 2010 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-12953 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Achterberg, Tobias A1 - Berthold, Timo A1 - Hendel, Gregor T1 - Rounding and Propagation Heuristics for Mixed Integer Programming N2 - Primal heuristics are an important component of state-of-the-art codes for mixed integer programming. In this paper, we focus on primal heuristics that only employ computationally inexpensive procedures such as rounding and logical deductions (propagation). We give an overview of eight different approaches. To assess the impact of these primal heuristics on the ability to find feasible solutions, in particular early during search, we introduce a new performance measure, the primal integral. Computational experiments evaluate this and other measures on MIPLIB~2010 benchmark instances. T3 - ZIB-Report - 11-29 KW - primal heuristic KW - mixed integer programming KW - domain propagation Y1 - 2011 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-13255 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Fügenschuh, Armin A1 - Geißler, Björn A1 - Gollmer, Ralf A1 - Hayn, Christine A1 - Henrion, Rene A1 - Hiller, Benjamin A1 - Humpola, Jesco A1 - Koch, Thorsten A1 - Lehmann, Thomas A1 - Martin, Alexander A1 - Mirkov, Radoslava A1 - Morsi, Antonio A1 - Römisch, Werner A1 - Rövekamp, Jessica A1 - Schewe, Lars A1 - Schmidt, Martin A1 - Schultz, Rüdiger A1 - Schwarz, Robert A1 - Schweiger, Jonas A1 - Stangl, Claudia A1 - Steinbach, Marc A1 - Willert, Bernhard T1 - Mathematical Optimization for Challenging Network Planning Problems in Unbundled Liberalized Gas Markets N2 - The recently imposed new gas market liberalization rules in Germany lead to a change of business of gas network operators. While previously network operator and gas vendor where united, they were forced to split up into independent companies. The network has to be open to any other gas trader at the same conditions, and free network capacities have to be identified and publicly offered in a non-discriminatory way. We show that these new paradigms lead to new and challenging mathematical optimization problems. In order to solve them and to provide meaningful results for practice, all aspects of the underlying problems, such as combinatorics, stochasticity, uncertainty, and nonlinearity, have to be addressed. With such special-tailored solvers, free network capacities and topological network extensions can, for instance, be determined. T3 - ZIB-Report - 13-13 KW - Gas Market Liberalization KW - Entry-Exit Model KW - Gas Network Access Regulation KW - Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Nonconvex Stochastic Optimization Y1 - 2013 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-17821 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Berthold, Timo T1 - Measuring the impact of primal heuristics N2 - In modern MIP solvers, primal heuristics play a major role in finding and improving feasible solutions early in the solution process. However, classical performance measures such as time to optimality or number of branch-and-bound nodes reflect the impact of primal heuristics on the overall solving process badly. This article discusses the question of how to evaluate the effect of primal heuristics. Therefore, we introduce a new performance measure, the "primal integral" which depends on the quality of solutions found during the solving process as well as on the points in time when they are found. Our computational results reveal that heuristics improve the performance of MIP solvers in terms of the primal bound by around 80%. Further, we compare five state-of-the-art MIP solvers w.r.t. the newly proposed measure. T3 - ZIB-Report - 13-17 KW - mixed integer programming KW - primal heuristic KW - performance measure Y1 - 2013 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-17887 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Pfetsch, Marc A1 - Fügenschuh, Armin A1 - Geißler, Björn A1 - Geißler, Nina A1 - Gollmer, Ralf A1 - Hiller, Benjamin A1 - Humpola, Jesco A1 - Koch, Thorsten A1 - Lehmann, Thomas A1 - Martin, Alexander A1 - Morsi, Antonio A1 - Rövekamp, Jessica A1 - Schewe, Lars A1 - Schmidt, Martin A1 - Schultz, Rüdiger A1 - Schwarz, Robert A1 - Schweiger, Jonas A1 - Stangl, Claudia A1 - Steinbach, Marc A1 - Vigerske, Stefan A1 - Willert, Bernhard T1 - Validation of Nominations in Gas Network Optimization: Models, Methods, and Solutions N2 - In this article we investigate methods to solve a fundamental task in gas transportation, namely the validation of nomination problem: Given a gas transmission network consisting of passive pipelines and active, controllable elements and given an amount of gas at every entry and exit point of the network, find operational settings for all active elements such that there exists a network state meeting all physical, technical, and legal constraints. We describe a two-stage approach to solve the resulting complex and numerically difficult mixed-integer non-convex nonlinear feasibility problem. The first phase consists of four distinct algorithms facilitating mixed-integer linear, mixed-integer nonlinear, reduced nonlinear, and complementarity constrained methods to compute possible settings for the discrete decisions. The second phase employs a precise continuous nonlinear programming model of the gas network. Using this setup, we are able to compute high quality solutions to real-world industrial instances whose size is significantly larger than networks that have appeared in the literature previously. T3 - ZIB-Report - 12-41 Y1 - 2012 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-16531 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Berthold, Timo A1 - Gamrath, Gerald A1 - Gleixner, Ambros A1 - Heinz, Stefan A1 - Koch, Thorsten A1 - Shinano, Yuji T1 - Solving mixed integer linear and nonlinear problems using the SCIP Optimization Suite N2 - This paper introduces the SCIP Optimization Suite and discusses the capabilities of its three components: the modeling language Zimpl, the linear programming solver SoPlex, and the constraint integer programming framework SCIP. We explain how these can be used in concert to model and solve challenging mixed integer linear and nonlinear optimization problems. SCIP is currently one of the fastest non-commercial MIP and MINLP solvers. We demonstrate the usage of Zimpl, SCIP, and SoPlex by selected examples, we give an overview of available interfaces, and outline plans for future development. T3 - ZIB-Report - 12-27 KW - LP, MIP, CIP, MINLP, modeling, optimization, SCIP, SoPlex, Zimpl Y1 - 2012 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-15654 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Achterberg, Tobias A1 - Raack, Christian T1 - The MCF-Separator -- Detecting and Exploiting Multi-Commodity Flow Structures in MIPs N2 - 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. T3 - ZIB-Report - 09-38 KW - mixed integer programming KW - network detection KW - cut-based inequalities KW - cplex KW - scip Y1 - 2009 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-11592 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - THES A1 - Gamrath, Gerald T1 - Generic Branch-Cut-and-Price N2 - In this thesis, we present the theoretical background, implementational details and computational results concerning the generic branch-cut-and-price solver GCG. KW - mixed-integer programming KW - column generation KW - branch-and-price Y1 - 2010 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-57543 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Hoppmann, Heide T1 - An Extended Formulation for the Line Planning Problem N2 - In this paper we present a novel extended formulation for the line planning problem that is based on what we call “configurations” of lines and frequencies. Configurations account for all possible options to provide a required transportation capacity on an infrastructure edge. The proposed configuration model is strong in the sense that it implies several facet-defining inequalities for the standard model: set cover, symmetric band, MIR, and multicover inequalities. These theoretical findings can be confirmed in computational results. Further, we show how this concept can be generalized to define configurations for subsets of edges; the generalized model implies additional inequalities from the line planning literature. T3 - ZIB-Report - 16-08 KW - Line Planning, Extended Formulation, Public Transport Y1 - 2016 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-57467 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - THES A1 - Achterberg, Tobias T1 - Constraint Integer Programming N2 - This thesis introduces the novel paradigm of "constraint integer programming" (CIP), which integrates constraint programming (CP) and mixed integer programming (MIP) modeling and solving techniques. It is supplemented by the software SCIP, which is a solver and framework for constraint integer programming that also features SAT solving techniques. SCIP is freely available in source code for academic and non-commercial purposes. Our constraint integer programming approach is a generalization of MIP that allows for the inclusion of arbitrary constraints, as long as they turn into linear constraints on the continuous variables after all integer variables have been fixed. The constraints, may they be linear or more complex, are treated by any combination of CP and MIP techniques: the propagation of the domains by constraint specific algorithms, the generation of a linear relaxation and its solving by LP methods, and the strengthening of the LP by cutting plane separation. The current version of SCIP comes with all of the necessary components to solve mixed integer programs. In the thesis, we cover most of these ingredients and present extensive computational results to compare different variants for the individual building blocks of a MIP solver. We focus on the algorithms and their impact on the overall performance of the solver. In addition to mixed integer programming, the thesis deals with chip design verification, which is an important topic of electronic design automation. Chip manufacturers have to make sure that the logic design of a circuit conforms to the specification of the chip. Otherwise, the chip would show an erroneous behavior that may cause failures in the device where it is employed. An important subproblem of chip design verification is the property checking problem, which is to verify whether a circuit satisfies a specified property. We show how this problem can be modeled as constraint integer program and provide a number of problem-specific algorithms that exploit the structure of the individual constraints and the circuit as a whole. Another set of extensive computational benchmarks compares our CIP approach to the current state-of-the-art SAT methodology and documents the success of our method. N2 - Diese Arbeit stellt einen integrierten Ansatz aus "Constraint Programming" (CP) und Gemischt-Ganzzahliger Programmierung ("Mixed Integer Programming", MIP) vor, den wir "Constraint Integer Programming" (CIP) nennen. Sowohl Modellierungs- als auch Lösungstechniken beider Felder fließen in den neuen integrierten Ansatz ein, um die unterschiedlichen Stärken der beiden Gebiete zu kombinieren. Als weiteren Beitrag stellen wir der wissenschaftlichen Gemeinschaft die Software SCIP zur Verfügung, die ein Framework für Constraint Integer Programming darstellt und zusätzlich Techniken des SAT-Lösens beinhaltet. SCIP ist im Source Code für akademische und nicht-kommerzielle Zwecke frei erhältlich. Unser Ansatz des Constraint Integer Programming ist eine Verallgemeinerung von MIP, die zusätzlich die Verwendung beliebiger Constraints erlaubt, solange sich diese durch lineare Bedingungen ausdrücken lassen falls alle ganzzahligen Variablen auf feste Werte eingestellt sind. Die Constraints werden von einer beliebigen Kombination aus CP- und MIP-Techniken behandelt. Dies beinhaltet insbesondere die "Domain Propagation", die Relaxierung der Constraints durch lineare Ungleichungen, sowie die Verstärkung der Relaxierung durch dynamisch generierte Schnittebenen. Die derzeitige Version von SCIP enthält alle Komponenten, die für das effiziente Lösen von Gemischt-Ganzzahligen Programmen benötigt werden. Die vorliegende Arbeit liefert eine ausführliche Beschreibung dieser Komponenten und bewertet verschiedene Varianten in Hinblick auf ihren Einfluß auf das Gesamt-Lösungsverhalten anhand von aufwendigen praktischen Experimenten. Dabei wird besonders auf die algorithmischen Aspekte eingegangen. Ein weiterer Hauptteil der Arbeit befasst sich mit der Chip-Design-Verifikation, die ein wichtiges Thema innerhalb des Fachgebiets der "Electronic Design Automation" darstellt. Chip-Hersteller müssen sicherstellen, dass der logische Entwurf einer Schaltung der gegebenen Spezifikation entspricht. Andernfalls würde der Chip fehlerhaftes Verhalten aufweisen, dass zu Fehlfunktionen innerhalb des Gerätes führen kann, in dem der Chip verwendet wird. Ein wichtiges Teilproblem in diesem Feld ist das Eigenschafts-Verifikations-Problem, bei dem geprüft wird, ob der gegebene Schaltkreisentwurf eine gewünschte Eigenschaft aufweist. Wir zeigen, wie dieses Problem als Constraint Integer Program modelliert werden kann und geben eine Reihe von problemspezifischen Algorithmen an, die die Struktur der einzelnen Constraints und der Gesamtschaltung ausnutzen. Testrechnungen auf Industrie-Beispielen vergleichen unseren Ansatz mit den bisher verwendeten SAT-Techniken und belegen den Erfolg unserer Methode. KW - Ganzzahlige Programmierung KW - Constraint Programmierung KW - SAT KW - Chip-Verifikation KW - Mathematische Programmierung KW - Integer Programming KW - Constraint Programming KW - SAT KW - Chip Verification KW - Mathematical Programming Y1 - 2009 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-11129 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Berthold, Timo A1 - Heinz, Stefan A1 - Vigerske, Stefan T1 - Extending a CIP framework to solve MIQCPs N2 - 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. T3 - ZIB-Report - 09-23 KW - mixed integer quadratically constrained programming KW - constraint integer programming KW - convex relaxation KW - nonconvex Y1 - 2009 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-11371 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Arnold, Thomas A1 - Berthold, Timo A1 - Heinz, Stefan A1 - Vigerske, Stefan A1 - Henrion, René A1 - Grötschel, Martin A1 - Koch, Thorsten A1 - Tischendorf, Caren A1 - Römisch, Werner T1 - A Jack of all Trades? Solving stochastic mixed-integer nonlinear constraint programs N2 - Natural gas is one of the most important energy sources in Germany and Europe. In recent years, political regulations have led to a strict separation of gas trading and gas transport, thereby assigning a central role in energy politics to the transportation and distribution of gas. These newly imposed political requirements influenced the technical processes of gas transport in such a way that the complex task of planning and operating gas networks has become even more intricate. Mathematically, the combination of discrete decisions on the configuration of a gas transport network, the nonlinear equations describing the physics of gas, and the uncertainty in demand and supply yield large-scale and highly complex stochastic mixed-integer nonlinear optimization problems. The Matheon project "Optimization of Gas Transport" takes the key role of making available the necessary core technology to solve the mathematical optimization problems which model the topology planning and the operation of gas networks. An important aspect of the academic impact is the free availability of our framework. As a result of several years of research and development, it is now possible to download a complete state-of-the-art framework for mixed-integer linear and nonlinear programming in source code at http://scip.zib.de T3 - ZIB-Report - 14-14 KW - gas transport optimization KW - mixed integer nonlinear programming Y1 - 2014 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-49947 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Ralphs, Ted A1 - Shinano, Yuji A1 - Berthold, Timo A1 - Koch, Thorsten T1 - Parallel Solvers for Mixed Integer Linear Programming N2 - In this article, we introduce parallel mixed integer linear programming (MILP) solvers. MILP solving algorithms have been improved tremendously in the last two decades. Currently, commercial MILP solvers are known as a strong optimization tool. Parallel MILP solver development has started in 1990s. However, since the improvements of solving algorithms have much impact to solve MILP problems than application of parallel computing, there were not many visible successes. With the spread of multi-core CPUs, current state-of-the-art MILP solvers have parallel implementations and researches to apply parallelism in the solving algorithm also getting popular. We summarize current existing parallel MILP solver architectures. T3 - ZIB-Report - 16-74 KW - parallel computing KW - integer programming KW - branch-and-bound KW - supercomputing Y1 - 2016 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-62239 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Borndörfer, Ralf A1 - Hoppmann, Heide A1 - Karbstein, Marika T1 - Passenger Routing for Periodic Timetable Optimization N2 - The task of periodic timetabling is to schedule the trips in a public transport system by determining arrival and departure times at every station such that travel and transfer times are minimized. To date, the optimization literature generally assumes that passengers do not respond to changes in the timetable, i.e., the passenger routes are fixed. This is unrealistic and ignores potentially valuable degrees of freedom. We investigate in this paper periodic timetabling models with integrated passenger routing. We show that different routing models have a huge influence on the quality of the entire system: Whatever metric is applied, the performance ratios of timetables w.r.t. to different routing models can be arbitrarily large. Computations on a real-world instance for the city of Wuppertal substantiate the theoretical findings. These results indicate the existence of untapped optimization potentials that can be used to improve the efficiency of public transport systems. T3 - ZIB-Report - 15-55 KW - Passenger routing KW - Periodic timetabling KW - Public transport Y1 - 2015 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-56739 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Gamrath, Gerald A1 - Berthold, Timo A1 - Heinz, Stefan A1 - Winkler, Michael T1 - Structure-based primal heuristics for mixed integer programming N2 - Primal heuristics play an important role in the solving of mixed integer programs (MIPs). They help to reach optimality faster and provide good feasible solutions early in the solving process. In this paper, we present two new primal heuristics which take into account global structures available within MIP solvers to construct feasible solutions at the beginning of the solving process. These heuristics follow a large neighborhood search (LNS) approach and use global structures to define a neighborhood that is with high probability significantly easier to process while (hopefully) still containing good feasible solutions. The definition of the neighborhood is done by iteratively fixing variables and propagating these fixings. Thereby, fixings are determined based on the predicted impact they have on the subsequent domain propagation. The neighborhood is solved as a sub-MIP and solutions are transferred back to the original problem. Our computational experiments on standard MIP test sets show that the proposed heuristics find solutions for about every third instance and therewith help to improve the average solving time. T3 - ZIB-Report - 15-26 KW - mixed-integer programming, large neighborhood search, primal heuristics, domain propagation Y1 - 2015 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-55518 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Gamrath, Gerald A1 - Berthold, Timo A1 - Heinz, Stefan A1 - Winkler, Michael T1 - Structure-driven fix-and-propagate heuristics for mixed integer programming N2 - Primal heuristics play an important role in the solving of mixed integer programs (MIPs). They often provide good feasible solutions early in the solving process and help to solve instances to optimality faster. In this paper, we present a scheme for primal start heuristics that can be executed without previous knowledge of an LP solution or a previously found integer feasible solution. It uses global structures available within MIP solvers to iteratively fix integer variables and propagate these fixings. Thereby, fixings are determined based on the predicted impact they have on the subsequent domain propagation. If sufficiently many variables can be fixed that way, the resulting problem is solved as an LP and the solution is rounded. If the rounded solution did not provide a feasible solution already, a sub-MIP is solved for the neighborhood defined by the variable fixings performed in the first phase. The global structures help to define a neighborhood that is with high probability significantly easier to process while (hopefully) still containing good feasible solutions. We present three primal heuristics that use this scheme based on different global structures. Our computational experiments on standard MIP test sets show that the proposed heuristics find solutions for about three out of five instances and therewith help to improve several performance measures for MIP solvers, including the primal integral and the average solving time. T3 - ZIB-Report - 17-56 KW - mixed-integer programming KW - primal heuristics KW - fix-and-propagate KW - large neighborhood search KW - domain propagation Y1 - 2017 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-65387 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Bortoletto, Enrico A1 - Lindner, Niels A1 - Masing, Berenike T1 - The Tropical and Zonotopal Geometry of Periodic Timetables N2 - The Periodic Event Scheduling Problem (PESP) is the standard mathematical tool for optimizing periodic timetabling problems in public transport. A solution to PESP consists of three parts: a periodic timetable, a periodic tension, and integer periodic offset values. While the space of periodic tension has received much attention in the past, we explore geometric properties of the other two components, establishing novel connections between periodic timetabling and discrete geometry. Firstly, we study the space of feasible periodic timetables, and decompose it into polytropes, i.e., polytopes that are convex both classically and in the sense of tropical geometry. We then study this decomposition and use it to outline a new heuristic for PESP, based on the tropical neighbourhood of the polytropes. Secondly, we recognize that the space of fractional cycle offsets is in fact a zonotope. We relate its zonotopal tilings back to the hyperrectangle of fractional periodic tensions and to the tropical neighbourhood of the periodic timetable space. To conclude we also use this new understanding to give tight lower bounds on the minimum width of an integral cycle basis. T3 - ZIB-Report - 22-09 KW - periodic event scheduling KW - tropical geometry KW - zonotopal tilings Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-86708 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Bortoletto, Enrico A1 - Lindner, Niels A1 - Masing, Berenike T1 - Tropical Neighbourhood Search: A New Heuristic for Periodic Timetabling N2 - Periodic timetabling is a central aspect of both the long-term organization and the day-to-day operations of a public transportation system. The Periodic Event Scheduling Problem (PESP), the combinatorial optimization problem that forms the mathematical basis of periodic timetabling, is an extremely hard problem, for which optimal solutions are hardly ever found in practice. The most prominent solving strategies today are based on mixed-integer programming, and there is a concurrent PESP solver employing a wide range of heuristics [3]. We present tropical neighborhood search (tns), a novel PESP heuristic. The method is based on the relations between periodic timetabling and tropical geometry [4]. We implement tns into the concurrent solver, and test it on instances of the benchmarking library PESPlib. The inclusion of tns turns out to be quite beneficial to the solver: tns is able to escape local optima for the modulo network simplex algorithm, and the overall share of improvement coming from tns is substantial compared to the other methods available in the solver. Finally, we provide better primal bounds for five PESPlib instances. T3 - ZIB-Report - 22-13 KW - Periodic Timetabling KW - Tropical Geometry KW - Neighbourhood Search KW - Mixed-Integer Programming Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-87385 SN - 1438-0064 ER -