Sandro Bosio
Title:
Hyperbolic set covering problems with competing ground-set elements

Abstract:
We investigate a new nonlinear variant of the set covering problem where each
ground-set element competes with all its neighbors (i.e., elements sharing
a covering subset with it) for access to a given resource, and resource
allocation is fair. In particular, motivated by a challenging problem arising
in wireless network design, we consider a hyperbolic objective function that
privileges covers with small subsets and with limited overlaps. In a sense,
this variant lies in between the set partitioning problem, where overlaps
are forbidden, and the standard set covering problem, where overlaps are not
an issue at all. We study the complexity and approximability of generic and
Euclidean versions of the problem, investigate linearization techniques and
present an efficient Lagrangean relaxation approach to tackle medium-scale
instances. Time permitting, we will also mention some application related
aspects. Joint work with Edoardo Amaldi and Federico Malucelli, DEI,
Politecnico di Milano.

slides