A fast heuristic method for minimizing traffic congestion on reconfigurable ring topologies

We describe the development of fast heuristics and methodologies for congestion minimization problems in directional wireless networks, and we compare their performance with optimal solutions. The focus is on the network layer topology control problem (NLTCP) defined by selecting an optimal ring topology as well as the flows on it. Solutions to NLTCP need to be computed in near realtime due to changing weather and other transient conditions and which generally preclude traditional optimization strategies. Using a mixed-integer linear programming formulation, we present both new constraints for this problem and fast heuristics to solve it. The new constraints are used to increase the lower bound from the linear programming relaxation.