An Application of Genetic Algorithms to the Topological Design of Distributed Computer Networks

The topological design of distributed computer networks essentially consists in finding a topology that minimizes the communication costs by taking into account a certain number of constraints such as delay and reliability. Under several aspects, it appears a very hard optimization problem. Therefore no exact solving approach can guarantee an optimal solution in realistic computation times, that militates in favor of heuristic methods capable of providing good feasible solutions. This paper uses a genetic algorithm for generating low cost network topologies which satisfy quality of service and reliability constraints. Computational results convince us this algorithm provides solutions of as much better quality as the size of the network is great.