A Neural-Network Solution to the Concentrator Assignment Problem

A NEURAL-NETWORK SOLUTION TO THE CONCENTRATOR ASSIGNNlENT PROBLEM Gene A. Tagliarini Edward W. Page Department of Computer Science, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634-1906 ABSTRACT Networks of simple analog processors having neuron-like properties have been employed to compute good solutions to a variety of optimization problems. This paper presents a neural-net solution to a resource allocation problem that arises in providing local access to the backbone of a wide-area communication network. The problem is described in terms of an energy function that can be mapped onto an analog computational network. Simulation results characterizing the performance of the neural computation are also presented. INTRODUCTION This paper presents a neural-network solution to a resource allocation problem that arises in providing access to the backbone of a communication network. 1 In the field of operations research, this problem was first known as the warehouse location problem and heuristics for finding feasible, suboptimal solutions have been developed previously.2.