Solving the bi-objective prize-collecting Steiner
tree problem with the ǫ-constraint method
Markus Leitner
a,1
Ivana Ljubi´ c
b,2
Markus Sinnl
b,3
a
Institute of Computer Graphics and Algorithms, Vienna University of
Technology, Vienna, Austria
b
Department of Statistics and Operations Research, University of Vienna,
Vienna, Austria
Abstract
In this paper, we study the bi-objective prize-collecting Steiner tree problem, whose
goal is to find a subtree that minimizes the edge costs for building that tree, and,
at the same time, to maximize the collected node revenues. We propose to solve
the problem using an ǫ-constraint algorithm. This is an iterative mixed-integer-
programming framework that identifies one solution for every point on the Pareto
front. In this framework, a branch-and-cut approach for the single-objective variant
of the problem is enhanced with warm-start procedures that are used to (i) generate
feasible solutions, (ii) generate violated cutting planes, and (iii) guide the branching
process. Standard benchmark instances from the literature are used to assess the
efficacy of our method.
Keywords: bi-objective combinatorial optimization, Steiner tree problem,
ǫ-constraint method
1
Supported by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) under grant I892-N23. Email:
leitner@ads.tuwien.ac.at
2
Supported by the APART Fellowship of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Email:
ivana.ljubic@univie.ac.at
3
Email: markus.sinnl@univie.ac.at
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
Electronic Notes in Discrete Mathematics 41 (2013) 181–188
1571-0653/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
www.elsevier.com/locate/endm
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.endm.2013.05.091