Simulation and Evaluation of Network Simplex Algorithm and its Extensions for Vehicle Scheduling Problems in Ports

The Minimum Cost Flow (MCF) problem is a well-known problem in the area of network optimisation. To tackle this problem, Network Simplex Algorithm (NSA) is the fastest solution method. NSA has three extensions, namely Network Simplex plus Algorithm (NSA+), Dynamic Network Simplex Algorithm (DNSA) and Dynamic Network Simplex plus Algorithm (DNSA+). The objectives of the research reported in this paper are to simulate and investigate the advantages and disadvantages of NSA compared with those of the three extensions in practical situations. To perform the evaluation, an application of these algorithms to scheduling problem of automated guided vehicles in container terminal is used. In the experiments, the number of iterations, CPU-time required to solve problems, overheads and complexity are considered.

Keywords:

Network Simplex Algorithm , Dynamic Network Simplex Algorithm , Optimization Methods , Dynamic Scheduling , Container Terminals