2-cyclic design in Analytic Hierarchy Process

The simple method called “2-cyclic design” is proposed to select pairs to be compared from the whole set of pairs in AHP, which reduces the comparing number n(n−1)/2 for n-object AHP to 2n. The isomorphism of our designs is investigated, by which we can reduce the range of designs to be considered. The standard errors of our designs are calculated for n = 5,…,60, by which we know the best 2-cyclic designs in the range. Developing the algebra on our designs we can clarify the characteristics of good designs and further propose several conjectures which give a general method to produce the better or the best designs. These conjectures are valid for n = 5,…,60.