Synthesizing complex multimedia network topologies using an evolutionary approach

iCAD, an evolutionary program, concurrently designs hierarchical network topologies and data management systems for data intensive applications, enabling all of a network´s clients to communicate and access servers efficiently, while minimizing design cost. iCAD chooses network hardware technologies, determines the data management system (selecting and placing servers; allocating files into servers) and integrates the data management system with the network. An object-oriented chromosome tree is used to explicitly represent all input and decision parameters. A compound crossover is formulated to merge two trees without repair. The experiment indicates the effectiveness of iCAD in finding good designs in a short time.