A branch-and-cut algorithm for the ring spur assignment problem

The ring spur assignment problem arises in the design of next-generation telecommunications networks and has applications in location-allocation problems. The aim is to identify a minimum cost set of interconnected ring spurs. We seek to connect all nodes of the network either on a set of bounded disjoint local rings or by a single spur edge connected to a node on a local ring. Local rings are interconnected by a special ring called the tertiary ring. We show that the problem is NP -Hard and present an Integer Programming formulation with additional valid inequalities. We implement a branch-and-cut algorithm and present our conclusions with computational results. (c) 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. NETWORKS, 2013