
Chapter 24
Network Models
24.1 Introduction
This chapter presents the general concepts, formulation, and solution of prob-
lems that can be described with network models. These are special cases of linear
optimization problems. The main goal is to formulate these problems as linear opti-
mization models and compute the minimum cost or the maximum flow from a source
point to a destination point in the network.
Examples of these types of problems are: shortest path problems, maximum flow
problems, and minimum spanning tree problems.
24.2 Graphs
A graph is used as a visual representation of a network. A graph consists of a
finite set of nodes (also known as vertices) ...