Bandwidth packing with priority classes

The bandwidth packing problem is defined as the selection and routing of messages from a given list of messages with prespecified requirements on demand for bandwidth. The messages have to be routed over a network with given topology so that the generated revenue is maximized. Messages to be routed are classified into two priority classes. An integer programming based formulation of this problem is proposed and a Lagrangean relaxation based methodology is described for solving this problem. A general purpose heuristic is then developed for generating feasible solutions of good quality. Several numerical experiments are conducted using a number of problem parameters such as number of messages, ratio of messages for lower and higher priority classes, capacity of links, and demand distribution of messages belonging to different classes and high quality solutions to the priority bandwidth packing problem are generated under the different situations.