Hub location problems with choice of different hub capacities and vehicle types

Abstract

Hub-and-spoke networks have wide (logistical) applications, e.g., in air and cargo transportation, post delivery, and telecommunication systems. In these networks transport volume is specified as flow between several origins and destinations. Hubs are specific facilities that serve as sorting, handling, transfer, and distribution points. In hub-and-spoke networks, flows with different origins and destinations are consolidated in hubs. Consolidation of flows in hubs may decrease transportation costs but increase additional costs due to establishing and operating hub facilities. Hub location problems deal with the location of hubs and allocation of origin-destination nodes to hub nodes in order to route the demand of each origin-destination pair through the network. In this paper, we extend the classical capacitated hub location problem. For each potential hub node we consider a set of different capacity levels which can be chosen. Besides, we consider the choice of different vehicle types of different capacities and costs to model more realistic costs. We present a single and a multiple allocation version. We implement the resulting integer programs in GAMS and solve them with CPLEX. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.