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An Improved Branch-and-Bound Algorithm for the Test Cover Problem

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Experimental and Efficient Algorithms (WEA 2005)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 3503))

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Abstract

The test cover problem asks for the minimal number of tests needed to uniquely identify a disease, infection, etc. At ESA’02 a collection of branch-and-bound algorithms was proposed by [4]. Based on their work, we introduce several improvements that are compatible with all techniques described in [4]. We present a faster data structure, cost based variable fixing and adapt an upper bound heuristic. The resulting algorithm solves benchmark instances up to 10 times faster than the former approach and up to 100 times faster than a general MIP-solver.

This work was partly supported by the IST Programme of the EU under contract number IST-1999-14186 (ALCOM-FT).

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© 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Fahle, T., Tiemann, K. (2005). An Improved Branch-and-Bound Algorithm for the Test Cover Problem. In: Nikoletseas, S.E. (eds) Experimental and Efficient Algorithms. WEA 2005. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3503. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11427186_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11427186_10

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-25920-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-32078-4

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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