On the point-of-presence optimization problem in IP networks

This paper presents a model for the point-of-presence (POP) optimization problem in Internet protocol (IP) networks, where a POP is a node composed of several interconnected co-located backbone routers. This problem consists of selecting the number of routers and their types, selecting the interface card types, connecting the access and the backbone links to the ports, selecting the link types between the co-located routers, and routing the traffic within the POP. A detailed example solved by using a branch-and-bound algorithm is presented along with results for a set of randomly generated problems. The results show that fair-sized problems can be solved to optimality within a reasonable amount of time.