Modern fixed telecommunication networks are based on fiber-optic technology. In the context of access networks, planners speak of FTTx (fiber-to-the-x) networks, where x indicates the device/location/customer to which the fibers are laid out. The planning of an FTTx network is a highly complex task for which mathematical optimization offers powerful modeling and solution tools. Existing models in this area often lack a satisfactory treatment of several important issues arising in practice. Many of these can be appropriately addressed by employing multi-objective optimization.
Based on existing models for FTTx network planning, we develop suitable multi-objective optimization models for the network design problems arising in this context. Finding “efficient” solutions of multi-objective optimization problems is, however, much more difficult than the treatment of the single-objective case. Hence, we also design appropriate methods for the proposed models that allow to solve realistic scenarios to “multi-objective optimality”. For this we devise exact methods and at the same time develop heuristics that approximate the Pareto set and provide, if possible, quality guarantees.
