Solving shortest path problem using particle swarm optimization

This paper presents the investigations on the application of particle swarm optimization (PSO) to solve shortest path (SP) routing problems. A modified priority-based encoding incorporating a heuristic operator for reducing the possibility of loop-formation in the path construction process is proposed for particle representation in PSO. Simulation experiments have been carried out on different network topologies for networks consisting of 15–70 nodes. It is noted that the proposed PSO-based approach can find the optimal path with good success rates and also can find closer sub-optimal paths with high certainty for all the tested networks. It is observed that the performance of the proposed algorithm surpasses those of recently reported genetic algorithm based approaches for this problem.