Network Design Through Sensitivity Analysis and

Singular Value Decomposition

Guido Gentile and Natale Papola
Dipartimento di Idraulica, Trasporti e Strade
University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Italy

THE PROBLEM
The Network Design Problem (NDP) consists in the seeking of a transportation network
supply configuration and demand flow pattern which jointly maximize a given objective
function of a social type, while satisfying the demand-supply equilibrium constraint. It is a
rather complicated problem because:
• The objective function is typically non convex;
• The equilibrium problem, to be introduced as a constraint, makes the general problem
become of the bi-level type;
• The number of design variables is typically high;
• There are generally present, among others, budget constraints and external effects are
to be considered.

OVERVIEW OF THE MAIN APPROACHES USED IN THE LITERATURE

The NDP approaches can be grouped into two categories: discrete NDP and continuous NDP.
The first ones deal with the topology of the network, while the second ones, for any given
topology, assume as design variables the characteristics of the elements of the network (e.g.,
capacities of road links, frequencies of transit line links, link tolls and fares, signal setting at
link intersections).
A discrete NDP can be solved through combinatorial optimisation techniques, for example of
the Branch & Bound type as in Magnanti e Wong (1984), yielding the exact solution. The
limit of this approach is the dimension of the network, though the use of the optimisation
probabilistic methods opens new perspectives.
Referring to the continuous NDP, the various approaches utilized could be grouped into the
following four categories:
Game theory approach, where a group of individuals make separate decisions, but the
solution depends on the iterative effect of all their decisions as, for example, in LeBlanc and
Abdulaal (1984), where an Iterative Optimization Assignment, consisting in iteratively
solving an equilibrium assignment problem, for a given specification of the design variables,
and an optimization of the design variables for a given traffic flow pattern, yields a non
cooperative Cournot Nash equilibrium, when existing. To be underlined that such a solution is
not necessarily Pareto-efficient.
Normative approach, where, assuming as design variables, among others, the link tolls,
possibly a different toll for each link of the network, a system optimum can be achieved,
which is the same (Bellei, Gentile and Papola 2000) as stating in a normative way the network
flow pattern, as in Steenbrink (1974).
Variational inequality approach, which consists in formalizing the demand-supply
equilibrium problem, here necessarily of the deterministic type, through a system of
variational inequalities to be considered as constraints of the objective function, then solving
the resulting problem using specific methods like: constraint accumulation (Marcotte, 1983),
cone projection (Clune, Smith and Xiang, 1999) and Minty parameterization (Patriksson and
Rockafellar, 2000).
Implicit approach, which consists in defining a function yielding the network equilibrium
flows connected with a given specification of the design variables and expressing through
these the flows appearing in the objective function, so yielding a classic mono-level problem
which can be solved through the solution procedures of the non linear programming
problems. To be noticed that the calculation of the objective function needs an equilibrium
problem to be solved. Consequently, descent methods without derivative can be used, like the
Hooke - Jeeves or the Powell algorithm, as in Abdulaal e LeBlanc (1979), or, alternatively,
the sensitivity analysis is to be used in order to calculate the derivatives of the assignment as
in Tobin and Friesz (1988), Davis (1994) and Yang (1997).

OUR APPROACH TO THE PROBLEM

In this paper we deal with the optimization of an existing network using the implicit approach,
which is a classic continuous NDP, making use of the sensitivity analysis. On this regard we,
firstly, extends the current results in the literature to the multi-user and multi-modal context
with elastic demand. Specifically, by making reference to persons’ trips, the equilibrium will
be formalized as a fixed point problem, employing, on the demand side, behavioral models
with elastic demand based on random utility theory, and, on the supply side, congested
networks with non-separable arc cost functions.
Secondly, given that the main difficulties when facing real size NDP in this context, arise
from the high number of the independent search directions (one for each design link), we
overcome this difficulty applying, to the Jacobian of the network loading map, the Singular
Value Decomposition (Golub and Van Loan 1996). This allows us to individualize subsets of
efficient directions, corresponding to those interventions having greater impacts, by filtering
the noise arising from non-efficient directions, corresponding to those interventions having
irrelevant impacts. We have a reason to be confident that the use of this technique while
limiting the calculus of the sensitivity to the efficient directions, will drastically reduce the
calculation needed to individualize a local optimum: a first result obtained from a network test
shows that only 3 or 4 ortonormal directions, out of 100 independent descent directions, cause
relevant impacts.
Thirdly, when calculating the gradient of the objective function, the sensitivity analysis of the
network loading will be used, instead of that of the network equilibrium. Moreover, with
reference to a nested logit demand model, a calculation procedure of the sensitivity will be
formulated with path implicit enumeration.
Finally, being the problem typically non-convex, in order to individualize the global
optimum, the classical calculation procedure will be coordinated with an heuristic, like the
taboo search, to avoid insisting along descent directions already explored.
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