A DYNAMIC PROGRAMMING APPROACH TO NETWORK PROBLEMS: A MODEL FOR ON-LINE COMPUTER SYSTEMS

Abstract

The report presents derivation, documentation, and listing of a dynamic programming model on JOSS FOR FINDING OPTIMAL SOLUTIONS (minimum-cost paths) to network problems. The network represents the possible connections between decisions and expresses costs of going from one to another. The model encompasses a value-iterative algorithm which successively converges to the solution. The principle of optimality, which permits finding the minimum-cost (shortest) path as a function of the maximum number of arcs allowed, is: Regardless of how a particular state was arrived at, the remaining decisions as to what path to take enroute to the terminal must themselves constitute an optimal solution. The costs of traversing arcs may be input, recalled from other files, or calculated by JOSS from input functions. Model flexibility allows for testing the sensitivity of a decision process to changes in the terminal point.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 01, 1970
Accession Number
AD0711811

Entities

People

  • L. J. Pipes

Organizations

  • RAND Corporation

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Algorithms
  • Computer Programming
  • Computer Programs
  • Computers
  • Costs
  • Department Of Defense
  • Dynamic Programming
  • Equations
  • Instructions
  • Iterations
  • Optimization
  • Probability
  • Probability Distributions
  • Terminals

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Applied Combinatorial Optimization and Logic Circuit Design.
  • Computer Science.
  • Statistical inference.