Cross Decomposition of the Degree-Constrained Minimum Spanning Tree problem

As computer communication networks become a prevalent part in our daily life, the importance of efficient design of those networks becomes more evident. One of the critical issues in the network design process is the topological design problem involved in establishing a centralized data communication network with best performance and low costs. It can be recognized as a degree-constrained minimum spanning tree and it has been shown to be NP-hard. The degree-constrained minimum spanning tree problem commonly appears as a subproblem in the design of centralized data communication networks, and so the development of effective algorithms has received much attention in the research literature. To achieve effectiveness in solving degree-constrained minimum spanning tree, a solution algorithm based on cross-decomposition is proposed in this paper. The computational results are analyzed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. It shows a great promise in the design of centralized data communication networks.