A GRASP HEURISTIC FOR SOLVING AN EXTENDED CAPACITATED CONCENTRATOR LOCATION PROBLEM

Local Access Networks (LACNs) are often considered the "last mile" over the Internet provided that they are connected to some existing Wide Area Network backbone. In this paper, a revised LACN-WAN interconnection model is presented as an extension to the conventional Capacitated Concentrator Location Problem (CCLP). An efficient heuristic is also developed to seek near-optimal deployment of telecommunication devices (e.g. links, concentrators, etc.) while minimizing the total connection costs for the network interconnection. Our solution algorithm could serve as a decision-making tool in solving problems with a real world size (i.e. 120 nodes and 30 concentrators).