Heuristics and Metaheuristics for Fixed-Charge Network Design

Abstract

Heuristics and metaheuristics are widely used to tackle difficult network design problems. We first present fundamental concepts for the development of heuristic approaches, such as search spaces, neighborhoods, and populations of solutions. The main heuristic and metaheuristic solution methods are then introduced: constructive and Local Search heuristics, neighborhood-based metaheuristics, population-based methods, matheuristics, parallel meta- and matheuristics. The chapter focuses on the application of these methods to fixed-charge transportation and multicommodity capacitated fixed-charge network design problems. We also provide a historical perspective on the development of the field since the 1960’s, as well as a number of challenging research avenues for meta- and matheuristics for network design problems.