Configuring wide area computer networks

Modern computer networks consist of wide area backbone networks which serve as major highways to transfer large volumes of communication traffic between access points, and local access networks which feed traffic between the backbone network and end user nodes. The topological design of wide area computer communication networks consists of selecting a set of locations for network control processors (NCPs) placement, deciding on backbone links and their capacities to connect the NCPs, linking end user nodes to the NCPs and selecting routes for routing messages between communicating end user pairs. This paper presents some of the problems faced by network designers starting from the capacity assignment problem, moving to routing and capacity assignment, followed by the topological design and capacity assignment problem; the last problem presented is the topological design and capacity expansion over time. The problems are complex combinatorial optimization problems, which require developing new solution procedures. The paper presents the problems and discusses models and solution procedures. The paper concludes with a discussion and directions for further research.