Optimization based algorithms for finding minimal cost ring covers in survivable networks

Designing low cost SONET networks composed of self-healing rings is an important problem facing the providers of broadband services. This manuscript demonstrates how optimization technology coupled with the highly efficient CPLEX software system can be used to help solve this important problem. For the first time, provable optimal designs are presented for several small networks which appear in the literature. In an empirical analysis, we demonstrate how this same methodology can be used to find good (but not provably optimal) designs for large test cases.