Network routing models applied to aircraft routing problems

We study network models applied to two aircraft routing problems, one in which the goal is to route strike aircraft to a target and back so as to to minimize losses and one in which the goal is to route civilian traffic around an airport so as to minimize noise exposure to the population. We propose joint routing as our model: find a required number of time-disjoint routes in a network that minimizes the total cost. We show that joint routing can in turn be modelled as a dynamic network flow problem. We study this problem under several variants and on different types of networks, establishing tight bounds on the running time of exact solutions through applications of both existing and some new methods. We also discuss the modelling of the airspace in which the routing take place and how choices affect the performance of our optimization algorithms. Our model extends to other applications, such as the routing of hazardous materials and of secure communications