Boolean Operators to Improve Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithms for Designing Optical Networks

Abstract The physical topology design (PTD) of optical networks is frequently accomplished by combining several solutions in an iterative way, especially if meta-heuristics are deployed for this purpose. Suitable operators to recombine information of network topologies aiming at creating innovative options for designing networks are very useful. Operators that preserve desired properties can improve the quality of the meta-heuristics utilized for solving the PTD problem. In this paper, we propose new crossover operators by using the OR and XOR operations to improve multi-objective evolutionary algorithms applied to design optical networks. We performed comparisons between the proposed crossover operators and the traditional uniform crossover. The proposed operators showed to be a suitable alternative to design optical networks. We obtained better solutions or at least solutions with the same quality when compared to solutions achieved by traditional approaches, but the execution time required by our proposal is smaller.