Article ID: | iaor20097302 |
Country: | United Kingdom |
Volume: | 59 |
Issue: | 10 |
Start Page Number: | 1398 |
End Page Number: | 1405 |
Publication Date: | Oct 2008 |
Journal: | Journal of the Operational Research Society |
Authors: | Berman O, Wang J |
We discuss the probabilistic 1–maximal covering problem on a network with uncertain demand. A single facility is to be located on the network. The demand originating from a node is considered covered if the shortest distance from the node to the facility does not exceed a given service distance. It is assumed that demand weights are independent discrete random variables. The objective of the problem is to find a location for the facility so as to maximize the probability that the total covered demand is greater than or equal to a pre–selected threshold value. We show that the problem is NP–hard and that an optimal solution exists in a finite set of dominant points. We develop an exact algorithm and a normal approximation solution procedure. Computational experiment is performed to evaluate their performance.