Computing the Critical Road Section for the Repair of a Transportation Network

Let G(V,E) denote a transportation network with a rate of traffic between each pair of nodes, and a latency function for each edge (road section). However, some road sections may be repaired at certain times and make some blockages. In this paper, we focus on the problem of computing a road section ej∈E for the repair of a transportation network, whose removal produces the ratio of the minimum sum travel times (total latency) of network G-ej to that of network G is maximum. We define such a road section as the critical road section for the repair of a transportation network (CRS for short), and give an algorithm for computing the CRS. Finally, an application of the CRS for a special network is shown. The problem discussed in this paper is of great significance to deal with the transportation management engineering.