Design of reliable SONET feeder networks

We address the physical SONET network design problem of selecting stackable, unidirectional rings connecting central office nodes (COs) and remote nodes (RNs). This problem frequently arises in designing feeder transport networks to support centralized traffic between the COs and RNs. We formulate a 0–1 programming model for this problem. A simulated annealing-based Lagrangian relaxation procedure to find optimal or near-optimal solutions is then described. Computational results are reported showing that our procedures produce solutions that are on average within 1.1% of optimality. We show that using simulated annealing to augment the pure Lagrangian approach produces superior solutions to the Lagrangian approach.