Finding a least hop(s) path subject to multiple additive constraints

In this paper, for the purpose of saving network resources, we first introduce and investigate a new problem referred to as the least hop(s) multiple additively constrained path (LHMACP) selection, which is NP-complete. Then, we propose the k-shortest paths Extended Bellman-Ford (k-EB) algorithm, which is capable of computing All Hops k-shortest Paths (AHKP) between a source and a destination. Through extensive analysis and simulations, we show that the heuristic algorithm, based on k-EB, is highly effective in finding a least hop path subject to multiple additive constraints with very low computational complexity; it achieves near 100% success ratio in finding a feasible path while minimizing its average hop count.