A capacity scaling heuristic for the multicommodity capacitated network design problem

In this paper, we propose a capacity scaling heuristic using a column generation and row generation technique to address the multicommodity capacitated network design problem. The capacity scaling heuristic is an approximate iterative solution method for capacitated network problems based on changing arc capacities, which depend on flow volumes on the arcs. By combining a column and row generation technique and a strong formulation including forcing constraints, this heuristic derives high quality results, and computational effort can be reduced considerably. The capacity scaling heuristic offers one of the best current results among approximate solution algorithms designed to address the multicommodity capacitated network design problem. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.