A second-order greedy algorithm for interconnecting Ethernets

The problem of determining which bridges and which LAN-bridge connections to establish to interconnect a set of Ethernets is considered. The objective is to minimize the cost. The configuration is to be a spanning tree and it must obey a degree constraint on each bridge. This combinational optimization problem is a degree-constrained Steiner tree problem. An efficient second-order greedy algorithm is developed to find a feasible solution to this problem. The results of computational experiments with the algorithm are reported. The algorithm were applied to interconnect a set of Ethernets at USC. A configuration for the USC Ethernets that costs 20% less than the cost of the current configuration is found