A Branch-and-Price Algorithm for the Bin Packing Problem with Conflicts

  • Authors:

  • Samir Elhedhli;Lingzi Li;Mariem Gzara;Joe Naoum-Sawaya

  • Affiliations:

  • Department of Management Sciences, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada;Department of Management Sciences, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada;Multimedia InfoRmation Systems and Advanced Computing Laboratory (MIRACL), Institut Suprieur d'Informatique et de Mathmatiques de Monastir, Monastir 5000, Tunisia;Department of Management Sciences, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada

  • Venue:
  • INFORMS Journal on Computing
  • Year:
  • 2011

Quantified Score

Hi-index 0.00

Visualization

Abstract

We provide a branch-and-price algorithm for the bin packing problem with conflicts, a variant of the classical bin packing problem that has major applications in scheduling and resource allocation. The proposed algorithm benefits from a number of special features that greatly contribute to its efficiency. First, we use a branching rule that matches the conflicting constraints, preserving the structure of the subproblems after branching. Second, maximal clique valid inequalities are generated based on the conflicting constraints and are added to the subproblems. The algorithm is tested on a standard set of problems and is compared to a recently proposed approach. Numerical results indicate its efficiency and stability.