On the effectiveness of the linear programming relaxation of the 0-1 multi-commodity minimum cost network flow problem

Several studies have reported that the linear program relaxation of integer multi-commodity network flow problems often provides integer optimal solutions. We explore this phenomenon with a 0-1 multi-commodity network with mutual arc capacity constraints. Characteristics of basic solutions in the linear programming relaxation problem of the 0-1 multi-commodity problem are identified. Specifically, necessary conditions for a linear programming relaxation to have a non-integer solution are presented. Based on the observed characteristics, a simple illustrative example problem is constructed to show that its LP relaxation problem has integer optimal solutions with a relatively high probability. Furthermore, to investigate whether or not and under what conditions this tendency applies to large-sized problems, we have carried out computational experiments by using randomly generated problem instances. The results of our computational experiment indicate that there exists a narrow band of arc density in which the 0-1 multi-commodity problems possess no integer optimal solutions.