Infrainformatics

Background:
The research area of Infrainformatics has its background in complex technical systems and systems modelling, i.e. when different competencies, such as technical, mathematical, economical, behavioral etc, are needed in order to understand and exploit a specific technical system. Systems modelling can include a chain of activities - from design to maintenance - including analysis, simulation, optimization, visualization and construction of a complex technical system.

Here we focus on complex technical systems taken from the communication and transportation sector. In particular, Infrainformatics include:

  • design of (new) infrastructure e.g. design of telecommunication networks, design of infrastructure for various transport modes, both in the area of transportation of people and goods.

  • efficient use of existing infrastructure e.g. the use of information technology in the transport sector, covering for example efficient use of any resources associated with a transportation activity.


    Ongoing projects:
    Below some current projects are listed. The first two projects are part of the research activities of a recently established Center of Competence: Planerings- och styrningsteknologier för fordonsflottor (POSITION) ("Fleet Management"). A board with representatives from Swedish Aviation Authority, Swedish Maritime Administration, Swedish Railways, SAAB Dynamics, AV TECH, ASG, Norrköping Community and Linköping Institute of Technology, has directed the research activities. Representing different transport modes, future key questions in the transport sector are discussed together with project leaders, supervisors, Ph.D. and masters students, defining relevant subprojects and research questions in the area. Also, the representatives are a link to the industry and can, when necessary, associate external persons with specific application skills to the project.


  • Airline scheduling (Tobias Andersson, Peter Värbrand)

    Capital intensive investments, high costs and low profits characterize the airline industry. To survive in this competitive market, continuous improvements are necessary. The development of planning systems has been one important tool in realizing these improvements. The starting point for this project is when a perturbation in a carefully planned flight schedule occurs and the aim is to minimize the negative consequences of this disturbance. By allowing, for example, cancellations, delays and/or aircraft swaps, the goal is to find a new cost efficient schedule which has minimal deviations from the original schedule and as soon as possible returns to the original one. See also!

    This research has been carried out in cooperation with, and has partially been financed by, Rocade AB, Kista, Stockholm.

    Andersson, T. and P. Värbrand (2000), The Flight Perturbation Problem, Research report ITN.


  • Dynamic Transportation Planning (Henrik Andesson, Peter Värbrand)

    This research is one part of a larger project concerning the collection of garbage from industries to a waste disposal area in a larger Swedish city. Today, customers (containers) are visited on a regular basis instead of when it is actually needed. The vision is to place a sensor in each container that measures the amount of garbage in the container and sends this information to a decision support system. Based on this information, the decision support system, mainly consisting of a routing part and a forecasting part, should provide the planners with a routing schedule. Full containers must be emptied - less full containers are emptied if it's economically justifiable.

    Andersson, H. and P. Värbrand (2000), A network flow model for the inventory routing problem, Research report ITN.


  • Design and Configuration of Mobile Telecommunication Networks (Patrik Björklund, Peter Värbrand, Di Yuan)

    The starting point for this project is to study strategic and/or operational decision problems that can be analyzed by the use of optimization and mathematical programming/modelling techniques. We are currently working with two subprojects; one related to design of infrastructure (Site planning i.e. how to design a cellular network) and one related to efficient use of existing infrastructure (Frequency assignment i.e. how to assign frequencies to cells). See also!

    This research has been carried out in cooperation with COMOPT AB, Helsingborg.

    Björklund, P., P. Värbrand and D. Yuan (2000), Optical GSM Network Planning with Frequency Planning, Submitted to Proceedings of the INFORMS Telecommunications Conference, Boca Raton, USA, Mars 5-8, 2000.


  • Design of Optical Networks (Peter Värbrand, Di Yuan)

    In this project, we consider a setting in which an optical network is available or has to be planned or updated, and the technology DWDM (Dense Wave Division Multiplexing) has to be utilized to increase the capacity (and reliability) of the network. Knowing the traffic matrix and the costs involved in the network planning (i.e., cost of placing new fibers, cost of installing optical cross-connects OXCs), the optimization problem consists in determining the traffic routing, the capacity of each link and in which nodes to install OXCs, minimizing the global cost. These decisions may take into account also reliability and redundancy features. See also!

    This subject is part of a joint research carried out jointly by Linköping University, Politecnico of Milan and Ericsson Telecom AB.

    Brunetta, L., F. Malucelli, P. Värbrand and D. Yuan (2000), Joint Optical Network Design, Routing and Wavelength Assignment by Integer Programming, Submitted to Telecommunication Systems.