Special Optimization Problems

In this chapter, we will delve into a special class of problems where the integer constraint is removed, known as LP relaxation, and the optimal solution to the LP problem is guaranteed to be integer and thus will also be the optimal solution to the original IP problem. Such a special class of problems has a distinct pattern in the resource consumption matrix, known as the [A] matrix, which makes such problems easier to solve than general IP problems. Finally, we will discuss how optimization concepts and models are applied in a real-world scenario to assign airlines to airport terminals in order to improve load balancing.