The fuzzy reliable hub location problem

Abstract

A Hub Location Problem (HLP) deals with finding the locations of hub facilities and assignment of demand nodes to established facilities. Due to special characteristics of HLP, the overall performance of the network highly depends on proper performance of hubs. Therefore, the design of reliable networks is a critical issue to be considered. In this paper, we design a single-allocation hub-and-spoke network, so that the reliability of the network is maximized. The reliability of each arc is assumed to be a fuzzy variable. An expected value maximization version of the problem is proposed and a simulation-embedded simulated annealing is presented. Finally, a set of test problems are presented and the results are analyzed.