k-Splittable Delay Constrained Routing Problem: A Branch-and-Price Approach

Routing problems, which include a QoS-based path control, play a key role in broadband communication networks. We analyze here an algorithmic procedure based on branch-and-price algorithm and on the flow deviation method to solve a nonlinear k-splittable flow problem. The model can support end-to-end delay bounds on each path and we compare the behavior of the algorithm with and without these constraints. The trade-off between QoS guarantees and CPU time is clearly established and we show that minimizing the average delay on all arcs will yield solutions close to the optimal one at a significant computational saving. (C) 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. NETWORKS, Vol. 55(1), 33-45 2010