The role of stochastic programming in communication network design

Conventional design and optimization methods are being challenged by the rapid evolution of electronic and optical communication networks. It becomes necessary to incorporate the stochastic effect of traffic flows into network models. This paper introduces the stochastic programming (SP) methodology to characterize the stochastic traffic. A multi-commodity network model is proposed. Two SP approaches, here-and-now and scenario tracking, are described through case studies for a prototype network.