Introduction to Combinatorial Optimization: Model Building in Integer Programming

Abstract

The integer programming (IP) model is a general-purpose optimization model that can formulate a surprisingly wide class of real applications using integer variables in linear programming (LP) models. Recent development in IP software systems has significantly improved our ability to solve large-scale instances. However, it is still difficult for most non-expert users to formulate real applications into IP models, because all conditions need to be written in linear inequalities. This paper demonstrates how to use IP software systems and formulate real applications into IP models.