Modelling and solving complex combinatorial optimization problems: quorumcast routing, elementary shortest path, elementary longest path and agricultural land allocation

Abstract

Abstract: The feasible solution set of a Combinatorial Optimization Problem (COP) is discrete and finite. Solving a COP is to find optimal solutions in the set of feasible solutions such that the value of a given cost function is minimized or maximized. In the literature, there exist both complete and incomplete methods for solving COPs. The complete (or exact) methods return the optimal solutions with the proof of the optimality, for example the branch-and-cut search. The incomplete methods try to find hight-quality solutions which are as close to the optimal ...