Solving Large Steiner Tree Problems in Graphs for Cost-efficient Fiber-To-The-Home Network Expansion

Tobias Müller, Kyrill Schmid, Daniëlle Schuman, Thomas Gabor, Markus Friedrich, Marc Geitz

2022

Abstract

The expansion of Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) networks creates high costs due to expensive excavation procedures. Optimizing the planning process and minimizing the cost of the earth excavation work therefore lead to large savings. Mathematically, the FTTH network problem can be described as a minimum Steiner Tree problem. Even though the Steiner Tree problem has already been investigated intensively in the last decades, it might be further optimized with the help of new computing paradigms and emerging approaches. This work studies upcoming technologies, such as Quantum Annealing, Simulated Annealing and nature-inspired methods like Evolutionary Algorithms or slime-mold-based optimization. Additionally, we investigate partitioning and simplifying methods. Evaluated on several real-life problem instances, we could outperform a traditional, widely-used baseline (NetworkX Approximate Solver (Hagberg et al., 2008)) on most of the domains. Prior partitioning of the initial graph and the slime-mold-based approach were especially valuable for a cost-efficient approximation. Quantum Annealing seems promising, but was limited by the number of available qubits.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Müller T., Schmid K., Schuman D., Gabor T., Friedrich M. and Geitz M. (2022). Solving Large Steiner Tree Problems in Graphs for Cost-efficient Fiber-To-The-Home Network Expansion. In Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence - Volume 3: ICAART, ISBN 978-989-758-547-0, pages 23-32. DOI: 10.5220/0010749300003116

in Bibtex Style

@conference{icaart22,
author={Tobias Müller and Kyrill Schmid and Daniëlle Schuman and Thomas Gabor and Markus Friedrich and Marc Geitz},
title={Solving Large Steiner Tree Problems in Graphs for Cost-efficient Fiber-To-The-Home Network Expansion},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence - Volume 3: ICAART,},
year={2022},
pages={23-32},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0010749300003116},
isbn={978-989-758-547-0},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence - Volume 3: ICAART,
TI - Solving Large Steiner Tree Problems in Graphs for Cost-efficient Fiber-To-The-Home Network Expansion
SN - 978-989-758-547-0
AU - Müller T.
AU - Schmid K.
AU - Schuman D.
AU - Gabor T.
AU - Friedrich M.
AU - Geitz M.
PY - 2022
SP - 23
EP - 32
DO - 10.5220/0010749300003116