We consider a single allocation hub-and-spoke network design problem which allocates each non-hub node to exactly one of given hub nodes so as to minimize the total transportation cost. This paper deals with a case in which the hubs are located in a cycle, which is called a cycle-star hub network design problem. The problem is essentially equivalent to a cycle-metric labeling problem. The problem is useful in the design of networks in telecommunications and airline transportation systems. We propose a 2(1 - 1/h)-approximation algorithm where h denotes the number of hub nodes. Our algorithm solves a linear relaxation problem and employs a dependent rounding procedure. We analyze our algorithm by approximating a given cycle-metric matrix by a convex combination of Monge matrices.
展开▼
