Two-level iterated local search for WDM network design problem with traffic grooming

Two important problems arise in WDM network planning: network design to minimize the operation cost and traffic grooming to maximize the usage of the high capacity channels. In practice, however, these two problems are usually simultaneously tackled, denoted as the network design problem with traffic grooming (NDG). In this paper, a mathematical formulation of the NDG problem is first presented. Then, this paper proposes a new metaheuristic algorithm based on two-level iterated local search (TL-ILS) to solve the NDG problem, where a novel tree search based neighborhood construction and a fast evaluation method are proposed, which not only enhance the algorithm's search efficiency but also provide a new perspective in designing neighborhoods for problems with graph structures. Our algorithm is tested on a set of benchmarks generated according to real application scenarios. We also propose a strengthening formulation of the original problem and a method to obtain the lower bound of the NDG problem. Computational results in comparison with the commercial software CPLEX and the lower bounds show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.     

A heuristic-based hybrid genetic-variable neighborhood search algorithm for task scheduling in heterogeneous multiprocessor system

Effective task scheduling, which is essential for achieving high performance in a heterogeneous multiprocessor system, remains a challenging problem despite extensive studies. In this article, a heuristic-based hybrid genetic-variable neighborhood search algorithm is proposed for the minimization of makespan in the heterogeneous multiprocessor scheduling problem. The proposed algorithm distinguishes itself from many existing genetic algorithm (GA) approaches in three aspects. First, it incorporates GA with the variable neighborhood search (VNS) algorithm, a local search metaheuristic, to exploit the intrinsic structure of the solutions for guiding the exploration process of GA. Second, two novel neighborhood structures are proposed, in which problem-specific knowledge concerned with load balancing and communication reduction is utilized respectively, to improve both the search quality and efficiency of VNS. Third, the proposed algorithm restricts the use of GA to evolve the task-processor mapping solutions, while taking advantage of an upward-ranking heuristic mostly used by traditional list scheduling approaches to determine the task sequence assignment in each processor. Empirical results on benchmark task graphs of several well-known parallel applications, which have been validated by the use of non-parametric statistical tests, show that the proposed algorithm significantly outperforms several related algorithms in terms of the schedule quality. Further experiments are carried out to reveal that the proposed algorithm is able to maintain high performance within a wide range of parameter settings.     

一种带局部搜索功能的入侵杂草优化算法

为了改善入侵杂草优化算法解的质量,提出一种带局部搜索功能的入侵杂草优化算法。该算法按照一定概率对每代产生的最优个体执行球体局部搜索算子或Logistic映射搜索算子,在最优个体周围进行精细搜索,并用搜索到的较优个体代替最优个体,提高了算法的局部搜索能力和优化精度。并对7个测试函数进行了仿真实验,结果表明:该算法具有较高的优化性能。     

An effective hybrid tabu search algorithm for multi-objective flexible job-shop scheduling problems

This paper proposes an effective hybrid tabu search algorithm (HTSA) to solve the flexible job-shop scheduling problem. Three minimization objectives – the maximum completion time (makespan), the total workload of machines and the workload of the critical machine are considered simultaneously. In this study, a tabu search (TS) algorithm with an effective neighborhood structure combining two adaptive rules is developed, which constructs improved local search in the machine assignment module. Then, a well-designed left-shift decoding function is defined to transform a solution to an active schedule. In addition, a variable neighborhood search (VNS) algorithm integrating three insert and swap neighborhood structures based on public critical block theory is presented to perform local search in the operation scheduling component. The proposed HTSA is tested on sets of the well-known benchmark instances. The statistical analysis of performance comparisons shows that the proposed HTSA is superior to four existing algorithms including the AL + CGA algorithm by Kacem, Hammadi, and Borne (2002b), the PSO + SA algorithm by Xia and Wu (2005), the PSO + TS algorithm by Zhang, Shao, Li, and Gao (2009), and the Xing’s algorithm by Xing, Chen, and Yang (2009a) in terms of both solution quality and efficiency.     

A hybrid variable neighborhood search for solving the hybrid flow shop scheduling problem

This paper proposes a hybrid variable neighborhood search (HVNS) algorithm that combines the chemical-reaction optimization (CRO) and the estimation of distribution (EDA), for solving the hybrid flow shop (HFS) scheduling problems. The objective is to minimize the maximum completion time. In the proposed algorithm, a well-designed decoding mechanism is presented to schedule jobs with more flexibility. Meanwhile, considering the problem structure, eight neighborhood structures are developed. A kinetic energy sensitive neighborhood change approach is proposed to extract global information and avoid being stuck at the local optima. In addition, contrary to the fixed neighborhood set in traditional VNS, a dynamic neighborhood set update mechanism is utilized to exploit the potential search space. Finally, for the population of local optima solutions, an effective EDA-based global search approach is investigated to direct the search process to promising regions. The proposed algorithm is tested on sets of well-known benchmark instances. Through the analysis of experimental results, the high performance of the proposed HVNS algorithm is shown in comparison with four efficient algorithms from the literature.     

Multi-center variable-scale search algorithm for combinatorial optimization problems with the multimodal property

Combinatorial optimization problems (COPs) are discrete problems arising from aerospace, bioinformatics, manufacturing, and other fields. One of the classic COPs is the scheduling problem. Moreover, these problems are usually multimodal optimization problems with a quantity of global and local optima. As a result, many search algorithms can easily become trapped into local optima. In this article, we propose a multi-center variable-scale search algorithm for solving both single-objective and multi-objective COPs. The algorithm consists of two distinct points. First, the multi-center strategy chooses several individuals with better performance as the only parents of the next generation, which means that there are a number of separate searching areas around the searching center. Second, the next generation of the population is produced by a variable-scale strategy with an exponential equation based on the searching center. The equation is designed to control the neighborhood scale, and adaptively realize the large-scale and small-scale searches at different search stages to balance the maintenance of diversity and convergence speed. In addition, an approach of adjusting centers is proposed concerning the number and distribution of centers for solving multi-objective COPs. Finally, the proposed algorithm is applied to three COPs, including the well-known flexible job shop scheduling problem, the unrelated parallel machine scheduling problem, and the test task scheduling problem. Both the single-objective optimization algorithm and the multi-objective optimization algorithm demonstrate competitive performance compared with existing methods.     

公交车辆调度的超级时空网络模型及改进和声搜索算法

为了在公交车辆调度中减少车辆的空驶时间和在人车固定搭配模式下实现乘务组工作时间的公平性,建立了基于超级时空网络的车辆调度模型,并设计了求解模型的改进和声搜索算法.首先,将调度中涉及的车场、车次、接续、出场弧、入场弧和空驶车次转换为超级时空网络中的点或弧段;然后,基于构建的时空网络建立相应的公交车辆调度优化模型;接着,设计了综合利用和声记忆库和可行解空间信息来生成新和声的混生算子;同时,在时空网络中搜索回路式接续建立网络局部元素的指派网络,通过求解对应指派问题实现对声调的美化;最后,基于上述操作建立求解模型的改进和声搜索算法.研究发现:减少车辆的空驶时间和实现乘务组工作时间的公平性是一对相互制约的目标,同时优化时必须根据实际需求加以权衡;车次链之间的工作时间偏差大小与车队规模之间不存在单调依赖关系.     

Discrete harmony search algorithm for flexible job shop scheduling problem with multiple objectives

Flexible job-shop scheduling problem (FJSP) is a practically useful extension of the classical job shop scheduling problem. This paper proposes an effective discrete harmony search (DHS) algorithm to solve FJSP. The objectives are the weighted combination of two minimization criteria namely, the maximum of the completion time (Makespan) and the mean of earliness and tardiness. Firstly, we develop a new method for the initial machine assignment task. Some existing heuristics are also employed for initializing the harmony memory with discrete machine permutation for machine assignment and job permutation for operation sequencing. Secondly, we develop a new rule for the improvisation to produce a new harmony for FJSP incorporating machine assignment and operation sequencing. Thirdly, several local search methods are embedded to enhance the algorithm’s local exploitation ability. Finally, extensive computational experiments are carried out using well-known benchmark instances. Computational results and comparisons show the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed DHS algorithm for solving the FJSP with weighted combination of two objectives.     

A tabu search heuristic for the hybrid flowshop scheduling with finite intermediate buffers

This paper investigates the hybrid flowshop scheduling with finite intermediate buffers, whose objective is to minimize the sum of weighted completion time of all jobs. Since this problem is very complex and has been proven strongly NP-hard, a tabu search heuristic is proposed. In this heuristic there are two main features. One is that a scatter search mechanism is incorporated to improve the diversity of the search procedure. And the other is that a permutation of N jobs representing their processing order in the first stage instead of a complex complete schedule is used to denote a solution. Computational experiments on randomly generated instances with different structures show that the proposed tabu search heuristic can provide good solutions compared to both the lower bounds and the algorithm proposed for this problem in a lately published literature.     

动态子和声算法求解无等待批量流水线问题

针对无等待批量流水线调度问题,根据和声算法的机理,提出了一种改进的和声算法对其进行求解。利用NEH和混沌序列相结合的方法产生初始解,并实现了和声向量与工序之间的转换;充分利用最优解,设计新的更新算子,为了避免陷入局部最优,引入了变异策略;结合蛙跳算法分组的特点,将和声库随机动态的分成了几个子和声;为平衡算法的全局开发和局部搜索的能力,对子和声中的最优解执行了局部搜索。通过仿真实验与其他几种算法进行比较,证明了算法的有效性。     

A parallel membrane inspired harmony search for optimization problems: A case study based on a flexible job shop scheduling problem

Harmony search is an emerging meta-heuristic optimization algorithm that is inspired by musical improvisation processes, and it can solve various optimization problems. Membrane computing is a distributed and parallel model for solving hard optimization problems. First, we employed some previously proposed approaches to improve standard harmony search by allowing its parameters to be adaptive during the processing steps. Information from the best solutions was used to improve the speed of convergence while preventing premature convergence to a local minimum. Second, we introduced a parallel framework based on membrane computing to improve the harmony search. Our approach utilized the parallel membrane computing model to execute parallelized harmony search efficiently on different cores, where the membrane computing communication characteristics were used to exchange information between the solutions on different cores, thereby increasing the diversity of harmony search and improving the performance of harmony search. Our simulation results showed that the application of the proposed approach to different variants of harmony search yielded better performance than previous approaches. Furthermore, we applied the parallel membrane inspired harmony search to the flexible job shop scheduling problem. Experiments using well-known benchmark instances showed the effectiveness of the algorithm.     

A new hybrid genetic algorithm for job shop scheduling problem

Job shop scheduling problem is a typical NP-hard problem. To solve the job shop scheduling problem more effectively, some genetic operators were designed in this paper. In order to increase the diversity of the population, a mixed selection operator based on the fitness value and the concentration value was given. To make full use of the characteristics of the problem itself, new crossover operator based on the machine and mutation operator based on the critical path were specifically designed. To find the critical path, a new algorithm to find the critical path from schedule was presented. Furthermore, a local search operator was designed, which can improve the local search ability of GA greatly. Based on all these, a hybrid genetic algorithm was proposed and its convergence was proved. The computer simulations were made on a set of benchmark problems and the results demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.     

A local search algorithm for finding optimal transit routes configuration with elastic demand

This paper proposes a new local search algorithm for finding the optimal configuration of subroutes from a set of candidate transit routes in a transportation network. It is intended to maximize the transit ridership while holding the budget constraint. In each iteration of the algorithm, route segments that are likely to absorb more transit passengers are added to the configuration and less‐contributing segments are removed, instead. A path‐based model with elastic demand is applied for traffic assignment problem. The algorithm takes advantage of the equilibrium paths information to speed up the calculations for emerging configurations. A numerical experiment on Sioux‐Falls network indicates that the proposed algorithm can achieve high‐quality solutions at different levels of budget. Also, the run‐time and performance of the algorithm are reported over a large problem instance of the Chicago sketch network with 55 artificial candidate routes.     

求解可重入并行机调度的混合禁忌搜索算法

为解决带有一台远程服务设备的可重入并行机调度问题,设计了一种混合禁忌搜索算法。针对传统禁忌搜索算法只从单起始点搜索、容易陷入局部最优等缺点,混合禁忌搜索算法设计了一种Restart策略。当传统禁忌搜索算法陷入局部最优时,用Restart策略重新产生初始解以进行禁忌搜索,将传统的禁忌搜索算法从单起始点搜索改进成多起始点搜索。数值实验中将混合禁忌搜索算法与启发式算法CS相比,结果表明该算法具有较高的求解质量,且其计算时间是可接受的。     

Local Search Genetic Algorithms for the Job Shop Scheduling Problem

In previous work, we developed three deadlock removal strategies for the job shop scheduling problem (JSSP) and proposed a hybridized genetic algorithm for it. While the genetic algorithm (GA) gave promising results, its performance depended greatly on the choice of deadlock removal strategies employed. This paper introduces a genetic algorithm based scheduling scheme that is deadlock free. This is achieved through the choice of chromosome representation and genetic operators. We propose an efficient solution representation for the JSSP in which the job task ordering constraints are easily encoded. Furthermore, a problem specific crossover operator that ensures solutions generated through genetic evolution are all feasible is also proposed. Hence, both checking of the constraints and repair mechanism can be avoided, thus resulting in increased efficiency. A mutation-like operator geared towards local search is also proposed which further improves the solution quality. Lastly, a hybrid strategy using the genetic algorithm reinforced with a tabu search is developed. An empirical study is carried out to test the proposed strategies.     

离散和声求解带启动时间批量流水线调度问题

分别在有等待和无等待的情况下,深入分析了带有启动时间的批量调度问题,以最小化最大完成时间为目标,提出了两种离散和声搜索算法。针对算法本质连续而问题离散的矛盾,对和声搜索算法进行改进。首先提出了基于工序的编码方式,采用inver-over和重组两种离散算子产生候选解的进化机制;并利用改进的NEH(Nawaz-Enscore-Ham)方法进行初始化,产生的高质量和多样化的初始种群有效地指导了算法的进化方向,提高收敛速度;最后将一种简单而有效的局部邻域搜索方法嵌入到和声搜索算法中以增强其局部搜索能力。仿真实验和比较结果表明了所提算法的有效性。     

基于改进克隆选择算法的区域交通灯配时优化

为提高城市区域路网通行效率,提出一种基于改进的克隆选择算法的区域交通灯实时配时方法。该配时方法以最小化区域路网总滞留车辆数为优化目标,将交通灯状态设置问题转换成克隆选择算法搜索最优解问题,在每个单位时间根据实时车流量动态搜索出使区域路网通行能力达到最高的交通灯配时方案。为提高克隆选择算法寻优性能,提出双层动态变异算子,并对克隆抑制算子与种群刷新算子进行改进。以西安市某区域路网为仿真实验参考对象,仿真结果表明：提出的配时方法的区域路网总滞留车辆数比固定配时减少了38.93%,比基于标准遗传算法的配时方法减少了20.33%。     

Using an enhanced scatter search algorithm for a resource-constrained project scheduling problem

The resource-constrained project scheduling problem is one of the classical problems in the field of operations research. There are many criteria to efficiently determine the desired schedule of a project. In this paper, a well-known criterion namely project’s makespan is considered. Due to the complexity of the problem, it is very difficult to obtain optimum solution for this kind of problems by means of traditional methods. Therefore, an enhanced scatter search, based on a new path relinking and two prominent permutation-based and crossover operators, is devised to solve the problem. In order to validate the performance of the proposed algorithm, in terms of solution quality, the algorithm is applied to various test problems available on the literature and the reliability of it, is compared with well-reported benchmark algorithms. The computational results reveal that the proposed algorithm has appropriate results in comparison with the existing benchmark algorithms.     

Snap-drift cuckoo search: A novel cuckoo search optimization algorithm

Cuckoo search (CS) is one of the well-known evolutionary techniques in global optimization. Despite its efficiency and wide use, CS suffers from premature convergence and poor balance between exploration and exploitation. To address these issues, a new CS extension namely snap-drift cuckoo search (SDCS) is proposed in this study. The proposed algorithm first employs a learning strategy and then considers improved search operators. The learning strategy provides an online trade-off between local and global search via two snap and drift modes. In snap mode, SDCS tends to increase global search to prevent algorithm of being trapped in a local minima; and in drift mode, it reinforces the local search to enhance the convergence rate. Thereafter, SDCS improves search capability by employing new crossover and mutation search operators. The accuracy and performance of the proposed approach are evaluated by well-known benchmark functions. Statistical comparisons of experimental results show that SDCS is superior to CS, modified CS (MCS), and state-of-the-art optimization algorithms in terms of convergence speed and robustness.     

求解流水线调度问题的万有引力搜索算法

研究了以最大完工时间为目标的流水线调度问题,使用万有引力算法求解调度问题,提出了一种最大排序规则,利用物体间各个位置分量值存在的大小次序关系,并结合随机键编码的方法产生,将物体的连续位置转变成了一个可行的调度方案;提出了一种边界变异的策略使得越界的物体不再聚集在边界上,而是分布在边界附近的可行空间内,从而增加种群的多样性;结合交换算子和插入算子提出了一种新的局部搜索算法,有效地避免了算法陷入局部最优值,进一步提高了解的质量.最后证明了算法的收敛性,并且计算了算法的时间复杂度和空间复杂度,仿真实验说明了所得算法的有效性.