Ressource allocation in communication networks

A key problem in the design of communication networks is the planning of bandwidth allocation to communication demands. Shortest path routing is the traditional answer to this problem. However, it is well known that this can lead to poor network performances. We propose a new approach which proceeds in two steps. In the first step, the corresponding relaxation problem of load sharing routing is solved optimally by non-linear programming techniques. Then, a heuristic based on ant colony optimization (ACO) techniques is used to derive a feasible solution to the original problem.