An Object-Oriented Framework for Local Search Heuristics

In the study of heuristics for combinatorial problems, it is often important to develop and compare, in a systematic way, different algorithms, strategies, and parameters for the same problem. This comparison is often biased not only by different implementation languages, but also by different architectures. This paper proposes a framework, described using design patterns, modeling different aspects involved in local search heuristics, such as algorithms for the construction of initial solutions, methods for neighborhood generation, and movement selection criteria. Using this framework we fix a basic architecture and thus increase our ability to construct and compare heuristics.