The Parallel Variable Neighborhood Search for the p-Median Problem

The Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS) is a recent metaheuristic that combines series of random and improving local searches based on systematically changed neighborhoods. When a local minimum is reached, a shake procedure performs a random search. This determines a new starting point for running an improving search. The use of interchange moves provides a simple implementation of the VNS algorithm for the p-Median Problem. Several strategies for the parallelization of the VNS are considered and coded in C using OpenMP. They are compared in a shared memory machine with large instances.     

Nonsmooth optimization through Mesh Adaptive Direct Search and Variable Neighborhood Search

This paper proposes a way to combine the Mesh Adaptive Direct Search (MADS) algorithm, which extends the Generalized Pattern Search (GPS) algorithm, with the Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS) metaheuristic, for nonsmooth constrained optimization. The resulting algorithm retains the convergence properties of MADS, and allows the far reaching exploration features of VNS to move away from local solutions. The paper also proposes a generic way to use surrogate functions in the VNS search. Numerical results illustrate advantages and limitations of this method.     

Variable neighborhood search for minimum cost berth allocation

The berth allocation problem is to allocate space along the quayside to incoming ships at a container terminal in order to minimize some objective function. We consider minimization of total costs for waiting and handling as well as earliness or tardiness of completion, for all ships. We assume ships can arrive at any given time, i.e., before or after the berths become available. The resulting problem, which subsumes several previous ones, is expressed as a linear mixed 0–1 program. As it turns out to be too time-consuming for exact solution of instances of realistic size, a Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS) heuristic is proposed, and compared with Multi-Start (MS), a Genetic Search algorithm (GA) and a Memetic Search algorithm (MA). VNS provides optimal solutions for all instances solved to optimality in a previous paper of the first two authors and outperforms MS, MA and GA on large instances.     

Cooperative Parallel Variable Neighborhood Search for the p-Median

We propose a cooperative multi-search method for the Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS) meta-heuristic based on the central-memory mechanism that has been successfully applied to a number of difficult combinatorial problems. In this approach, several independent VNS meta-heuristics cooperate by asynchronously exchanging information about the best solutions identified so far, thus conserving the simplicity of the original, sequential VNS ideas. The p-median problem (PM) serves as test case. Extensive experimentations have been conducted on the classical TSPLIB benchmark problem instances with up to 11948 customers and 1000 medians, without any particular calibration of the parallel method. The results indicate that, compared to sequential VNS, the cooperative strategy yields significant gains in terms of computation time without a loss in solution quality.     

Bringing order into the neighborhoods: relaxation guided variable neighborhood search

In this article we investigate a new variant of Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS): Relaxation Guided Variable Neighborhood Search. It is based on the general VNS scheme and a new Variable Neighborhood Descent (VND) algorithm. The ordering of the neighborhood structures in this VND is determined dynamically by solving relaxations of them. The objective values of these relaxations are used as indicators for the potential gains of searching the corresponding neighborhoods. We tested this new approach on the well-studied multidimensional knapsack problem. Computational experiments show that our approach is beneficial to the search, improving the obtained results. The concept is, in principle, more generally applicable and seems to be promising for many other combinatorial optimization problems approached by VNS. NICTA is funded by the Australian Government’s Backing Australia’s Ability initiative, in part through the Australian Research Council.The Institute of Computer Graphics and Algorithms is supported by the European RTN ADONET under grant 504438.     

Neighborhood structures for the container loading problem: a VNS implementation

This paper presents a Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS) algorithm for the container loading problem. The algorithm combines a constructive procedure based on the concept of maximal-space, with five new movements defined directly on the physical layout of the packed boxes, which involve insertion and deletion strategies. The new algorithm is tested on the complete set of Bischoff and Ratcliff problems, ranging from weakly to strongly heterogeneous instances, and outperforms all the reported algorithms which have used those test instances.     

A variable neighborhood search for the capacitated arc routing problem with intermediate facilities

The capacitated arc routing problem (CARP) focuses on servicing edges of an undirected network graph. A wide spectrum of applications like mail delivery, waste collection or street maintenance outlines the relevance of this problem. A realistic variant of the CARP arises from the need of intermediate facilities (IFs) to load up or unload the service vehicle and from tour length restrictions. The proposed Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS) is a simple and robust solution technique which tackles the basic problem as well as its extensions. The VNS shows excellent results on four different benchmark sets. Particularly, for all 120 instances the best known solution could be found and in 71 cases a new best solution was achieved.     

Combining variable neighborhood search with integer linear programming for the generalized minimum spanning tree problem

We consider the generalized version of the classical Minimum Spanning Tree problem where the nodes of a graph are partitioned into clusters and exactly one node from each cluster must be connected. We present a Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS) approach which uses three different neighborhood types. Two of them work in complementary ways in order to maximize search effectivity. Both are large in the sense that they contain exponentially many candidate solutions, but efficient polynomial-time algorithms are used to identify best neighbors. For the third neighborhood type we apply Mixed Integer Programming to optimize local parts within candidate solution trees. Tests on Euclidean and random instances with up to 1280 nodes indicate especially on instances with many nodes per cluster significant advantages over previously published metaheuristic approaches. This work is supported by the RTN ADONET under grant 504438.     

Exact and heuristic solutions of the global supply chain problem with transfer pricing

We examine the example of a multinational corporation that attempts to maximize its global after tax profits by determining the flow of goods, the transfer prices, and the transportation cost allocation between each of its subsidiaries. Vidal and Goetschalckx [Vidal, C.J., Goetschalckx, M., 2001. A global supply chain model with transfer pricing and transportation cost allocation. European Journal of Operational Research 129 (1), 134–158] proposed a bilinear model of this problem and solved it by an Alternate heuristic. We propose a reformulation of this model reducing the number of bilinear terms and accelerating considerably the exact solution. We also present three other solution methods: an implementation of Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS) designed for any bilinear model, an implementation of VNS specifically designed for the problem considered here and an exact method based on a branch and cut algorithm. The solution methods are tested on artificial instances. These results show that our implementation of VNS outperforms the two other heuristics. The exact method found the optimal solution of all small instances and of 26% of medium instances.     

A General VNS heuristic for the traveling salesman problem with time windows

This paper presents a General Variable Neighborhood Search (GVNS) heuristic for the Traveling Salesman Problem with Time Windows (TSPTW). The heuristic is composed by both constructive and optimization stages. In the first stage, the heuristic constructs a feasible solution using VNS, and in the optimization stage the heuristic improves the feasible solution with a General VNS heuristic. Both constructive and optimization stages take advantage of elimination tests, partial neighbor evaluation and neighborhood partitioning techniques. Experimental results show that this approach is efficient, reducing significantly the computation time and improving some best known results from the literature.     

A Variable Neighborhood Search for the Multi Depot Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows

The aim of this paper is to propose an algorithm based on the philosophy of the Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS) to solve Multi Depot Vehicle Routing Problems with Time Windows. The paper has two main contributions. First, from a technical point of view, it presents the first application of a VNS for this problem and several design issues of VNS algorithms are discussed. Second, from a problem oriented point of view the computational results show that the approach is competitive with an existing Tabu Search algorithm with respect to both solution quality and computation times.     

The Team Orienteering Problem with Time Windows: An LP-based Granular Variable Neighborhood Search

The Team Orienteering Problem (TOP) is a known NP-hard problem that typically arises in vehicle routing and production scheduling contexts. In this paper we introduce a new solution method to solve the TOP with hard Time Window constraints (TOPTW). We propose a Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS) procedure based on the idea of exploring, most of the time, granular instead of complete neighborhoods in order to improve the algorithm’s efficiency without loosing effectiveness. The method provides a general way to deal with granularity for those routing problems based on profits and complicated by time constraints. Extensive computational results are reported on standard benchmark instances. Performance of the proposed algorithm is compared to optimal solution values, when available, or to best known solution values obtained by state-of-the-art algorithms. The method comes out to be, on average, quite effective allowing to improve the best know values for 25 test instances.     

A modified variable neighborhood search for the discrete ordered median problem

This paper presents a modified Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS) heuristic algorithm for solving the Discrete Ordered Median Problem (DOMP). This heuristic is based on new neighborhoods’ structures that allow an efficient encoding of the solutions of the DOMP avoiding sorting in the evaluation of the objective function at each considered solution. The algorithm is based on a data structure, computed in preprocessing, that organizes the minimal necessary information to update and evaluate solutions in linear time without sorting. In order to investigate the performance, the new algorithm is compared with other heuristic algorithms previously available in the literature for solving DOMP. We report on some computational experiments based on the well-known N-median instances of the ORLIB with up to 900 nodes. The obtained results are comparable or superior to existing algorithms in the literature, both in running times and number of best solutions found.     

Local search intensified: Very large-scale variable neighborhood search for the multi-resource generalized assignment problem

We introduce a heuristic for the Multi-Resource Generalized Assignment Problem (MRGAP) based on the concepts of Very Large-Scale Neighborhood Search and Variable Neighborhood Search. The heuristic is a simplified version of the Very Large-Scale Variable Neighborhood Search for the Generalized Assignment Problem. Our algorithm can be viewed as a k-exchange heuristic; but unlike traditional k-exchange algorithms, we choose larger values of k resulting in neighborhoods of very large size with high probability. Searching this large neighborhood (approximately) amounts to solving a sequence of smaller MRGAPs either by exact algorithms or by heuristics. Computational results on benchmark test problems are presented. We obtained improved solutions for many instances compared to some of the best known heuristics for the MRGAP within reasonable running time. The central idea of our heuristic can be used to develop efficient heuristics for other hard combinatorial optimization problems as well.     

General Variable Neighborhood Search for computing graph separators

Computing graph separators in networks has a wide range of real-world applications. For instance, in telecommunication networks, a separator determines the capacity and brittleness of the network. In the field of graph algorithms, the computation of balanced small-sized separators is very useful, especially for divide-and-conquer algorithms. In bioinformatics and computational biology, separators are required in grid graphs providing a simplified representation of proteins. This papers presents a new heuristic algorithm based on the Variable Neighborhood Search methodology for computing vertex separators. We compare our procedure with the state-of-the-art methods. Computational results show that our procedure obtains the optimum solution in all of the small and medium instances, and high-quality results in large instances.     

A variable neighborhood search heuristic for periodic routing problems

The aim of this paper is to propose a new heuristic for the Periodic Vehicle Routing Problem (PVRP) without time windows. The PVRP extends the classical Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) to a planning horizon of several days. Each customer requires a certain number of visits within this time horizon while there is some flexibility on the exact days of the visits. Hence, one has to choose the visit days for each customer and to solve a VRP for each day. Our method is based on Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS). Computational results are presented, that show that our approach is competitive and even outperforms existing solution procedures proposed in the literature. Also considered is the special case of a single vehicle, i.e. the Periodic Traveling Salesman Problem (PTSP). It is shown that slight changes of the proposed VNS procedure is also competitive for the PTSP.     

A Metaheuristic to Solve a Location-Routing Problem with Non-Linear Costs

The paper deals with a location-routing problem with non-linear cost functions. To the best of our knowledge, a mixed integer linear programming formulation for the addressed problem is proposed here for the first time. Since the problem is NP-hard exact algorithms are able to solve only particular cases, thus to solve more general versions heuristics are needed. The algorithm proposed in this paper is a combination of a p-median approach to find an initial feasible solution and a metaheuristic to improve the solution. It is a hybrid metaheuristic merging Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS) and Tabu Search (TS) principles and exploiting the synergies between the two. Computational results and conclusions close the paper.     

Variable neighborhood search: Principles and applications

Systematic change of neighborhood within a possibly randomized local search algorithm yields a simple and effective metaheuristic for combinatorial and global optimization, called variable neighborhood search (VNS). We present a basic scheme for this purpose, which can easily be implemented using any local search algorithm as a subroutine. Its effectiveness is illustrated by solving several classical combinatorial or global optimization problems. Moreover, several extensions are proposed for solving large problem instances: using VNS within the successive approximation method yields a two-level VNS, called variable neighborhood decomposition search (VNDS); modifying the basic scheme to explore easily valleys far from the incumbent solution yields an efficient skewed VNS (SVNS) heuristic. Finally, we show how to stabilize column generation algorithms with help of VNS and discuss various ways to use VNS in graph theory, i.e., to suggest, disprove or give hints on how to prove conjectures, an area where metaheuristics do not appear to have been applied before.     

Breakout local search for the Steiner tree problem with revenue,budget and hop constraints

The Steiner tree problem (STP) is one of the most popular combinatorial optimization problems with various practical applications. In this paper, we propose a Breakout Local Search (BLS) algorithm for an important generalization of the STP: the Steiner tree problem with revenue, budget and hop constraints (STPRBH), which consists of determining a subtree of a given undirected graph which maximizes the collected revenues, subject to both budget and hop constraints. Starting from a probabilistically constructed initial solution, BLS uses a Neighborhood Search (NS) procedure based on several specifically designed move operators for local optimization, and employs an adaptive diversification strategy to escape from local optima. The diversification mechanism is implemented by adaptive perturbations, guided by dedicated information of discovered high-quality solutions. Computational results based on 240 benchmarks show that BLS produces competitive results with respect to several previous approaches. For the 56 most challenging instances with unknown optimal results, BLS succeeds in improving 49 and matching one best known results within reasonable time. For the 184 instances which have been solved to optimality, BLS can also match 167 optimal results.     

Heuristic Procedures for Solving the Discrete Ordered Median Problem

We present two heuristic methods for solving the Discrete Ordered Median Problem (DOMP), for which no such approaches have been developed so far. The DOMP generalizes classical discrete facility location problems, such as the p-median and p-center. The first procedure proposed in this paper is based on a genetic algorithm developed by Moreno Vega (1996) for p-median and p-center problems. Additionally, a second heuristic approach based on the Variable Neighborhood Search metaheuristic (VNS) proposed by Hansen and Mladenović (1997) for the p-median problem is described. An extensive numerical study is presented to show the efficiency of both heuristics and compare them.