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AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF DIFFERENT BRANCHING STRATEGIES FOR CONSTRAINT SATISFACTION PROBLEMS

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dc.contributor.authorPark, Vincent Se-jinen
dc.date.accessioned2006-08-22T14:26:36Z
dc.date.available2006-08-22T14:26:36Z
dc.date.issued2004en
dc.date.submitted2004en
dc.description.abstractMany real life problems can be formulated as constraint satisfaction problems <i>(CSPs)</i>. Backtracking search algorithms are usually employed to solve <i>CSPs</i> and in backtracking search the choice of branching strategies can be critical since they specify how a search algorithm can instantiate a variable and how a problem can be reduced into subproblems; that is, they define a search tree. In spite of the apparent importance of the branching strategy, there have been only a few empirical studies about different branching strategies and they all have been tested exclusively for numerical constraints. In this thesis, we employ the three most commonly used branching strategies in solving finite domain <i>CSPs</i>. These branching strategies are described as follows: first, a branching strategy with strong commitment assigns its variables in the early stage of the search as in k-Way branching; second, 2-Way branching guides a search by branching one side with assigning a variable and the other with eliminating the assigned value; third, the domain splitting strategy, based on the least commitment principle, branches by dividing a variable's domain rather than by assigning a single value to a variable. In our experiments, we compared the efficiency of different branching strategies in terms of their execution times and the number of choice points in solving finite domain <i>CSPs</i>. Interestingly, our experiments provide evidence that the choice of branching strategy for finite domain problems does not matter much in most cases--provided we are using an effective variable ordering heuristic--as domain splitting and 2-Way branching end up simulating k-Way branching. However, for an optimization problem with large domain size, the branching strategy with the least commitment principle can be more efficient than the other strategies. This empirical study will hopefully interest other practitioners to take different branching schemes into consideration in designing heuristics.en
dc.formatapplication/pdfen
dc.format.extent483787 bytes
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10012/1193
dc.language.isoenen
dc.pendingfalseen
dc.publisherUniversity of Waterlooen
dc.rightsCopyright: 2004, Park, Vincent Se-jin. All rights reserved.en
dc.subjectComputer Scienceen
dc.subjectBRANCHINGen
dc.subjectBRANCHING STRATEGYen
dc.subjectCONSTRAINTen
dc.subjectCONSTRAINT SATISFACTION PROBLEMen
dc.subjectCONSTRAINT PROGRAMMINGen
dc.subjectDOMAIN SPLITTINGen
dc.subjectK-WAY BRANCHINGen
dc.subject2-WAY BRANCHINGen
dc.subjectBACKTRACKING SEARCHen
dc.subjectVARIABLE ORDERINGen
dc.subjectHEURISTICen
dc.subjectOPTIMIZATIONen
dc.subjectDOMAIN SIZEen
dc.subjectLEAST COMMITMENTen
dc.titleAN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF DIFFERENT BRANCHING STRATEGIES FOR CONSTRAINT SATISFACTION PROBLEMSen
dc.typeMaster Thesisen
uws-etd.degreeMaster of Mathematicsen
uws-etd.degree.departmentSchool of Computer Scienceen
uws.peerReviewStatusUnrevieweden
uws.scholarLevelGraduateen
uws.typeOfResourceTexten

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