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The dynamic replica placement problem with service levels in content delivery networks: a model and a simulated annealing heuristic

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Abstract

Dynamically assigning copies (replicas) of internet files to regionally placed servers is a crucial planning problem for content delivery network providers. Their goal is to minimize placement, storage and delivery costs while fulfilling service-level agreements. Although there is considerable work on simplified versions of this problem such as the static case, the dynamic problem with all three cost types and service-level constraints has yet not been considered in the literature. This paper provides a mixed integer programming (MIP) formulation for the problem as well as a simulated annealing metaheuristic. A computational study is employed to assess the simulated annealing heuristic and the MIP employing a state-of-the-art solver.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. TUM School of Management, Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany

    Rainer Kolisch & André Dahlmann

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  1. Rainer Kolisch
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  2. André Dahlmann
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Correspondence to Rainer Kolisch.

Appendices

Appendix A: Notation

See Table 3

Table 3 Notation for the DRPSL
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Appendix B: Pseudocodes

figure a
figure b
figure c

Appendix C: Test instances

See Table 4

Table 4 Test instances (base case \(i5\))
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Appendix D: Computational results

See Table 5

Table 5 Solution gaps \(\Delta \) for CPLEX (60 s), CPLEX (600 s), CPLEX (3,600 s) and SA
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Kolisch, R., Dahlmann, A. The dynamic replica placement problem with service levels in content delivery networks: a model and a simulated annealing heuristic. OR Spectrum 37, 217–242 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00291-013-0358-z

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