Communication network design using Particle Swarm Optimization

Particle swarm optimization is applied on an instance of single and mufti criteria network design problem. The primary goal of this study is to present the efficiency of a simple hybrid particle swarm optimization algorithm on the design of a network infrastructure including decisions concerning the locations and sizes of links. A complementary goal is to also address quality of service issues in the design process. Optimization objectives in this case are the network layout cost and the average packet delay in the network. Therefore a multi-objective instance of the hybrid PSO algorithm is applied. The particular hybrid PSO includes mutation to avoid premature convergence. For the same reason repulsion/attraction mechanisms are also applied on the single objective case. Mutation is passed on to the mufti-objective instance of the algorithm. Obtained results are compared with corresponding evolutionary approaches.