k-splittable delay constrained routing problem: A branch and price approach

Routing problems which include a QoS based path control play a key role in broadband communication networks. We analyze here an algorithmic procedure based on branch and price algorithm and on the flow deviation method to solve a nonlinear k-splittable flow problem. The model can support end-to-end delay bounds on each path and we compare the behavior of the algorithm with and without these constraints. The trade-off between QoS guarantees and CPU time is clearly established and we show that minimizing the average delay on all arcs will yield solutions close to the optimal one at a significant computational saving.