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Wide area telecommunication network design: application to the Alberta SuperNet

  • Case-Oriented Paper
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Journal of the Operational Research Society

Abstract

This article proposes a solution methodology for the design of a wide area telecommunication network. This study is motivated by the Alberta SuperNet project, which provides broadband Internet access to 422 communities across Alberta. There are two components to this problem: the network design itself, consisting of selecting which links will be part of the solution and which nodes should house shelters; and the loading problem which consists of determining which signal transport technology should be installed on the selected edges of the network. Mathematical models are described for these two subproblems. A tabu search algorithm heuristic is developed and tested on randomly generated instances and on Alberta SuperNet data.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partially supported by the Canadian Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council under grants CRD 268431, OGP 25481 and 39682-05. This support is gratefully acknowledged. Thanks are due to Fatma Gzara, Osman Alp, Erla Anderson and two anonymous referees for their valuable comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

    E A Cabral & R A Patterson

  2. Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey

    E Erkut

  3. HEC Montréal, Montréal, Canada

    G Laporte

Authors
  1. E A Cabral
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  2. E Erkut
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  3. G Laporte
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  4. R A Patterson
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to G Laporte.

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Cabral, E., Erkut, E., Laporte, G. et al. Wide area telecommunication network design: application to the Alberta SuperNet. J Oper Res Soc 59, 1460–1470 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602479

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602479

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