On the Existence of a Feasible Flow in a Stochastic Transportation Network

A. Prékopa and E. Boros published a paper “On the Existence of a Feasible Flow in a Stochastic Transportation Network” that appeared in Operations Research 39(1991), 119-129. In that paper the authors gave a powerful technique to evaluate transportation system reliability. At the nodes production takes place and the products are shipped on the arcs. Interconnected power systems are the primary examples for the application of the method. Reliability means that in case of efficiency in the electricity production, the power system can assist each other so that all demand can be met. The mentioned reliability calculation method uses probability bounding techniques developed by the same authors. However, there are some other bounds based on individual probability calculations which can be used to compute more efficient bounds. The proposed project aims to improve on the reliability calculation method, by using other and more recent probability bounding techniques. These improved bounds; hunter bound and cherry tree bounds are calculated based on individual probabilities. Acknowledgements: The first two authors were supported by DIMACS Graduate Student Award, Summer 2008.