Exact solution approaches for the discrete $\alpha$-neighbor $p$-center problem

TL;DR

This paper introduces exact integer programming-based branch-and-cut algorithms for the discrete α-neighbor p-center problem, significantly improving solution optimality and computational efficiency over existing approximation and heuristic methods.

Contribution

It develops novel integer programming formulations with strengthening techniques and demonstrates their effectiveness through extensive computational experiments.

Findings

Solved 116 out of 194 instances to proven optimality

Most instances solved in under a minute

Provided improved solutions for numerous instances

Abstract

The discrete $\alpha$-neighbor $p$-center problem (d-$\alpha$-$p$CP) is an emerging variant of the classical $p$-center problem which recently got attention in literature. In this problem, we are given a discrete set of points and we need to locate $p$ facilities on these points in such a way that the maximum distance between each point where no facility is located and its $\alpha$-closest facility is minimized. The only existing algorithms in literature for solving the d-$\alpha$-$p$CP are approximation algorithms and two recently proposed heuristics. In this work, we present two integer programming formulations for the d-$\alpha$-$p$CP, together with lifting of inequalities, valid inequalities, inequalities that do not change the optimal objective function value and variable fixing procedures. We provide theoretical results on the strength of the formulations and convergence results for the lower bounds obtained after applying the lifting procedures or the variable fixing procedures in an iterative fashion. Based on our formulations and theoretical results, we develop branch-and-cut (B&C) algorithms, which are further enhanced with a starting heuristic and a primal heuristic. We evaluate the effectiveness of our B&C algorithms using instances from literature. Our algorithms are able to solve 116 out of 194 instances from literature to proven optimality, with a runtime of under a minute for most of them. By doing so, we also provide improved solution values for 116 instances.