New heuristics and meta-heuristics for the Bandpass problem

Abstract

The Bandpass problem (BP), modelled by Babayev et al., is a combinatorial optimization problem arising in optical communication networks using wavelength division multiplexing technology. The BP aims to design an optimal packing of information flows on different wavelengths into groups to obtain the highest available cost reduction. In this paper, we propose new methods to solve the BP. Firstly, we present two new heuristic algorithms which generate better solutions than the algorithm introduced by Babayev et al. for almost all of the problem instances of the BP library. Secondly, we present a new meta-heuristic algorithm using three different crossover and five different mutation operators. Totally, fifteen implementations have been created and tested using two different outputs which are obtained by our proposed heuristics as the initial population. The experimental results show that the proposed meta-heuristic algorithm improves the solutions.

Keywords

• Bandpass problem
• Combinatorial optimization problem
• Heuristic and meta-heuristic algorithms
• Boolean programming
• Wavelength division multiplexing