Modelling, Simulation and Optimisation of Network Planning Methods

In this paper, three iterative improvement methods, simulated annealing, genetic algorithm and tabu search, are proposed to search for solutions to network planning problems. Then, a brief summary of the heuristic methods, single-stage optimization methods, time-phased optimization methods, artificial intelligence techniques and iterative improvement methods are presented. Finally, the performance of each of the techniques is studied and the results compared with those from conventional methods. Also, some of the important characteristics of network planning methods and their strengths and weaknesses are identified and compared. Key-words Heuristic Methods, Tabu Search, Simulated Annealing, genetic Algorithms, Artificial Intelligence Techniques, Iterative Improvement Methods.