Greedy Harmony Search Algorithm for the Hop Constrained Connected Facility Location

TL;DR

This paper introduces a customized harmony search algorithm with greedy enhancements to efficiently solve the NP-hard Hop Constrained Connected Facility Location problem, demonstrating high-quality solutions on benchmark data.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel hybrid harmony search algorithm incorporating greedy strategies for the HCConFL problem, improving solution quality and computational efficiency.

Findings

Produces optimal solutions for all benchmark instances

Operates with high computational speed

Outperforms other heuristics like VNS and tabu search

Abstract

We present a simple, robust and efficient harmony search algorithm for the Hop Constrained Connected Facility Location problem (HCConFL). The HCConFL problem is NP-hard that models the design of data-management and telecommunication networks in a manner of reliability. In this paper, we customize harmony search algorithm to solve the HCConFL problem. To arrive to quick, optimal cost of each solution, we use a new greedy approach expanding idea of Kruskal algorithm in our objective function. We also use a new greedy method combined with harmony search to obtain a good approximation in an efficient computational time. The algorithm was evaluated on the standard OR Library benchmarks. Computational results show that with high frequencies the modified harmony search algorithm produces optimal solutions to all benchmarks very quickly. We also solve the problem with another heuristic algorithm including the variable neighborhood search, the tabu search, to evaluate our algorithm.