Routing and capacity assignment in backbone communication networks

This article addresses the problem of selecting a route for every pair of communicating nodes and assigning a capacity to each link in a backbone network in order to minimize the total link capacity and delay costs. A mathematical programming formulation of the problem is presented. An efficient solution procedure based on a Lagrangean relaxation of the problem is developed. Extensive computational results across a variety of networks are reported. These results indicate that the solution procedure is effective for a wide range of traffic loads and different cost structures.