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The -maximum flow model with uncertain capacities

Article  in  Applied Mathematical Modelling · April 2015

DOI: 10.1016/j.apm.2014.10.021

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 Applied Mathematical Modelling 39 (2015) 2056–2063

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Applied Mathematical Modelling

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apm

The a-maximum flow model with uncertain capacities

Sibo Ding ⇑
School of Management, Henan University of Technology, Zhengzhou 450001, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper investigates uncertain maximum flow problem. To obtain the uncertainty dis-
Received 22 June 2013 tribution of the maximum flow, an a-maximum flow model is formulated under uncer-
Received in revised form 25 May 2014 tainty theory framework. It is proved that there exists an equivalence relationship
Accepted 2 October 2014
between the a-maximum flow model and the classic deterministic maximum flow model.
Available online 22 October 2014
Furthermore, some important properties of a-maximum flow model are analyzed, based on
which a polynomial algorithm is proposed. Finally, a numerical example is presented to
Keywords:
illustrate the model and the algorithm.
Maximum flow problem
Uncertainty theory
Ó 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Uncertain programming
Generic preflow-push algorithm

1. Introduction

The maximum flow problem is one of the core issues of network optimization and has been widely studied. Fulkerson and
Dantzig [1] first investigated important basic model of this problem. After that, Ford and Fulkerson [2] solved it using aug-
menting path algorithm. Motivated by a desire to develop a method with improved worst-case complexity, Dinic [3] intro-
duced the concept of layered network. His algorithm proceeds by augmenting flows along directed paths from source node to
sink node in the layered networks. Edmonds and Karp [4] also independently proposed that the Ford and Fulkerson algo-
rithm augments flow along shortest paths. Until this point, all maximum flow algorithms were augmenting path algorithms.
However, the augmenting path algorithm could be slow because it might perform a large number of augmentations. In order
to reduce the number of augmentations, Karzanov [5] introduced the first preflow-push algorithm on layered networks. After
that, Goldberg and Tarjan [6] constructed distance labels instead of layered networks to improve the running time of pre-
flow-push algorithm. They described a very flexible generic preflow-push algorithm that performs push and relabel opera-
tions at active nodes.
In practice, flow capacities may change over time in communication network or transportation network. One may assume
network arcs have different values that are random variables with known probability distributions. As an extension of deter-
ministic maximum flow problem, the stochastic maximum flow problem has been investigated extensively. Frank and Hak-
imi [7] assumed that each branch in communication network has a random capacity and attempted to find the probability of
a flow between vertices. Frank and Frisch [8] considered how to determine the maximum flow probability distribution in
networks where each capacity is a continuous random variable. Furthermore, Doulliez [9] studied multi-terminal network
with discrete probabilistic branch capacities. In addition, some researchers tried to give lower and upper bounds on the
expected maximum flow. Onaga [10] derived an upper bound in general undirected or directed networks, while Carey

⇑ Tel.: +86 186 2371 7212.

E-mail addresses: dingsibo@haut.edu.cn, d4b2006@aliyun.com.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apm.2014.10.021
0307-904X/Ó 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
 S. Ding / Applied Mathematical Modelling 39 (2015) 2056–2063 2057

and Hendrickson [11] presented an efficient method to find a lower bound in general directed networks. After that, Nagamo-
chi and Ibaraki [12] provided necessary and sufficient conditions for Carey and Hendrickson’s lower bound.
In reality, however, there exists indeterminacy about the parameters (capacities, costs) of maximum flow problems. That
indeterminacy cannot be described by random variable because no samples are available. For instance, when networks sub-
ject to extreme events such as earthquakes, it is impossible to get probability distributions of arc capacities. If we insist on
using probability theory to deal with indeterminacy, counterintuitive results will occur [13]. But experts can estimate, based
on their experience, the belief degree that arc capacities are less than or equal to a given value. In order to deal with this kind
of human uncertainty, Liu founded uncertainty theory [14] and refined it [15]. Since then, uncertainty theory and its appli-
cation have experienced explosive growth. Peng and Iwamura [16] derived sufficient and necessary condition for uncertainty
distribution. Liu and Ha [17] developed a formula for calculating the expected values of monotone functions of uncertain
variables. In order to deal with mathematical programming involving with uncertain parameters, Liu [18] first proposed
uncertain programming theory to model uncertain optimization problems. After that, Liu and Yao [19] introduced an uncer-
tain multilevel programming for modeling uncertain decentralized decision systems, and Liu and Chen [20] developed an
uncertain multiobjective programming and an uncertain goal programming.
Some attempts have been made to collect expert’s experimental data and get uncertain distribution. Liu [21] suggested
the principle of least squares to estimate the unknown parameters of uncertainty distribution. Moreover, when a number of
experts are available, Wang et al. [22] applied the Delphi method to determine the uncertainty distribution. Chen and Rale-
scu [23] used B-spline method to estimate the uncertainty distribution.
Other particular care has been taken into account in investigating uncertain graph and uncertain network. The connect-
edness index of uncertain graph was proposed by Gao and Gao [24]. Zhang and Peng [25] suggested a method to calculate
Euler index of uncertain graph. Gao [26] computed cycle index of uncertain graph. As an important contribution, Liu [21] first
introduced uncertainty theory into network optimization. He studied project scheduling problem with uncertain duration
times. Furthermore, Liu [27] assumed uncertainty and randomness simultaneously appear in a complex network, and put
forward the concept of uncertain random network. Gao [28] gave an equivalence relation between the uncertain shortest
path and the deterministic shortest path. And, Han et al. [29] studied the uncertain maximum flow problem and provided
a numerical solution method. This paper constructs an uncertain a-maximum flow model, and analyzes properties of the
model, and then designs a new polynomial algorithm.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, some basic concepts and properties of uncertainty theory
used throughout this paper are introduced. In Section 3, an uncertain a-maximum flow model is formulated and its proper-
ties are analyzed. In Section 4, an optimal algorithm is developed to solve the model. To illustrate the algorithm, a numerical
example is presented in Section 5. Section 6 gives a conclusion to this paper.

2. Preliminaries

Uncertainty theory is a branch of mathematics for modeling human uncertainty. In order to deal with human uncertainty,
Liu [14,15] presented four axioms: (1) normality axiom, (2) duality axiom, (3) subadditivity axiom, and (4) product axiom.
In this section, we introduce some fundamental concepts and properties of uncertainty theory, which will be used
throughout this paper.

Definition 1 (Liu [14]). Let C be a nonempty set, L a r-algebra over C, and M an uncertain measure. Then the triplet
ðC; L; MÞ is called an uncertainty space.

Definition 2 (Liu [14]). An uncertain variable is a measurable function n from an uncertainty space ðC; L; MÞ to the set of real
numbers, i.e., for any Borel set B of real numbers, the set
fn 2 Bg ¼ fc 2 CjnðcÞ 2 Bg
is an event.

Definition 3 (Liu [14]). The uncertainty distribution U of an uncertain variable n is defined by

UðxÞ ¼ Mfn 6 xg
for any real number x.
The zigzag uncertainty distribution n  Zða; b; cÞ has an uncertainty distribution
8
> 0; if x 6 a
>
>
< ðx  aÞ=2ðb  aÞ; if a 6 x 6 b
UðxÞ ¼
>
> ðx þ c  2bÞ=2ðc  bÞ; if b 6 x 6 c
>
:
1; if x P c:
2058 S. Ding / Applied Mathematical Modelling 39 (2015) 2056–2063

Theorem 1 (Liu [14]). Let n be an uncertain variable with uncertainty distribution U. If the expected value exists, then
Z þ1 Z 0
E½n ¼ ð1  UðxÞÞdx  UðxÞdx:
0 1

Theorem 2 (Liu [21]). An uncertainty distribution UðxÞ is said to be regular if it is a continuous and strictly increasing function
with respect to x at which 0 < MðxÞ < 1, and

lim UðxÞ ¼ 0; lim UðxÞ ¼ 1:

x!1 x!þ1

Definition 4 (Liu [15]). The uncertain variables n1 ; n2 ; . . . ; nn are said to be independent if

( )
\n ^
n
M ðni 2 Bi Þ ¼ Mfni 2 Bi g
i¼1 i¼1

for any Borel sets B1 ; B2 ; . . . ; Bn of real numbers.

Theorem 3 (Liu [21]). Let n1 ; n2 ; . . . ; nn be independent uncertain variables with regular uncertainty distributions U1 ; U2 ; . . . ; Un ,
respectively. If f is a strictly increasing function, then
n ¼ f ðn1 ; n2 ; . . . ; nn Þ
is an uncertain variable with inverse uncertainty distribution
 
W1 ðaÞ ¼ f U1
1 ðaÞ; U1 1
2 ðaÞ; . . . ; Un ðaÞ :

In reality, we can easily obtain a strictly increasing functions f. Therefore, by Theorem 2, we can transform an indetermi-
nacy model into a deterministic one by

Mff ðn1 ; n2 ; . . . ; nn Þ 6 xg P a;
to its equivalent deterministic form

x P f ðU1 1 1
1 ðaÞ; U2 ðaÞ; . . . ; Un ðaÞÞ:

3. Mathematical formulation

This paper concerns uncertain maximum flow problem. The goal is to maximize the total flow sent from the source node
to the sink node not exceeding the uncertain capacity on any arc and keeping flow balance in every node. In classic deter-
ministic maximum flow problem, a flow network is 5-tuple N ¼ ðV; A; c; s; tÞ, with source node s, sink node t, a finite node set
V ¼ f1; 2; . . . ; ng and arc set A ¼ fði; jÞji; j 2 Vg, together with a nonnegative real-valued capacity function c defined on its arc
set A.
Denote u ¼ fuij jði; jÞ 2 Ag as the set of arc capacities. Then in network N , from the source node s to the sink node t, the
maximum flow is a function of u, which is denoted as f. Given u; f ðuÞ can be found. Denote x ¼ fxij jði; jÞ 2 Ag as the set of flow
on arc ði; jÞ. A flow is feasible if it satisfies conservation condition
8 X X
>
> xsj  xjs ¼ f ; ði; jÞ 2 A
>
>
>
> j:ðs;jÞ2A j:ðj;sÞ2A
>
< X X
xij  xji ¼ 0; ði; jÞ 2 A
>
> j:ði;jÞ2A j:ðj;iÞ2A
>
> X X
>
> xtj  xjt ¼ f ; ði; jÞ 2 A
>
:
j:ðt;jÞ2A j:ðj;tÞ2A

and capacity constraints 0 6 xij 6 uij , where f is the flow in the network N .
In classic deterministic maximum flow problem, capacities of arcs are crisp values. Unfortunately, cases such as this
which capacities of arcs are crisp values are rare. Especially, networks are quite large, and it is impossible to describe them
explicitly. But, if there are enough data available, random maximum flow models may be considered as network models.
However, in most cases, we cannot get enough data or data is invalid because of change in conditions. For example, due
to the impact of unexpected accidents on traffic flow, we cannot use probabilistic rules to describe the complexity of the
networks. In this situation, the capacity data can only be obtained from the decision-maker’s subjective estimation. Thus,
it is unsuitable to regard subjective estimation data as random variables. In this paper, we employ uncertain variables to
describe the capacities of arcs. We consider the maximum flow problem subject to the following assumptions:
 S. Ding / Applied Mathematical Modelling 39 (2015) 2056–2063 2059

(1) The network is directed.

(2) The network does not contain parallel arcs.
(3) All capacities are positive independent uncertain variables.

Define n ¼ fnij jði; jÞ 2 Ag. We can denote the network with uncertain capacities of arcs as f
N ¼ ðV; A; n; s; tÞ. The maximum
flow is f ðnÞ. As a function of n; f is also an uncertain variable.
Sometimes, the decision-maker assumes that the flow should satisfy some chance constraints with at most a given con-
fidence level a. Then we have the following definition.

Definition 5. A flow x is the a-maximum flow from source node s to sink node t if
0
maxff jMfn 6 xg 6 ag P maxff jMfn 6 x0 g 6 ag
for any feasible flow x0 from source node s to sink node t, where a is a predetermined confidence level.
Chance constrained programming offers a powerful tool for modeling uncertain decision systems. The essential idea of
chance constrained programming of a-maximum flow model is to maximize the flow value in network subject to chance
constraints holding with confidence level a. In order to find a-maximum flow, we propose the following a-maximum flow
model
8
>
> max f
>
>
>
>
>
> subject to :
>
>
>
> 8
>
> f; i ¼ s;
>
> >
>
>
< X X >
<
xij  xji ¼ 0; 8i 2 V  fs; tg; ð1Þ
>
> >
>
>
> j:ði;jÞ2A j:ðj;iÞ2A >
:
>
> f ; i ¼ t;
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Mfnij 6 xij g 6 a; ði; jÞ 2 A;
>
>
>
:
xij P 0; ði; jÞ 2 A;
where a is a predetermined confidence level provided by the decision-maker.
In classic deterministic model, the maximum flow is obtained by polynomial algorithms. It implies that if there is one way
to transform a-maximum model into its crisp equivalent, then we can solve the model in deterministic environment by poly-
nomial algorithms. Therefore, we need to convert the chance constraints
Mfnij 6 xij g 6 a; ði; jÞ 2 A
into its crisp equivalent.
In order to deign algorithm for a-maximum flow model, we first introduce property of the chance constraint.

Lemma 1. Mfnij 6 xij g 6 a, for ði; jÞ 2 A can be transformed as xij 6 U1

ij ðaÞ.

Proof. Denote the uncertainty distribution of nij as Uij , for ði; jÞ 2 A. According to Theorem 3, for any 0 < a < 1,

Mfnij 6 U1
ij ðaÞg ¼ a:

Since uncertainty distribution is an increasing function, from

Mfnij 6 xij g 6 a ¼ Mfnij 6 U1

ij ðaÞg;

we obtain

xij 6 U1
ij ðaÞ:

This proves the lemma. h

Lemma 1 indicates that the chance constraint can be converted into its crisp equivalent, and we can draw the following
theorem.

Theorem 4. In network f N ¼ ðV; A; n; s; tÞ; nij has a regular uncertainty distribution Uij ; ði; jÞ 2 A. Then, a-maximum flow of
f
N ¼ ðV; A; n; s; tÞ is just the maximum flow of the corresponding deterministic network N ¼ ðV; A; c; s; tÞ, where the capacity of
each arc ði; jÞ 2 A is U1
ij ðaÞ.

Proof. By Lemma 1, model (1) can be easily converted into the following deterministic model:
2060 S. Ding / Applied Mathematical Modelling 39 (2015) 2056–2063

Fig. 1. Network f
N for example.

Table 1
List of arc capacities and U1
ij ð0:9Þ.

arc ði; jÞ nij U1

ij ð0:9Þ

ðs; 1Þ Zð14; 16; 18Þ 17.6

ð1; 2Þ 6 6
ð1; 3Þ Zð9; 10; 11Þ 10.8
ð2; tÞ Zð10; 11; 12Þ 11.8
ð3; tÞ Zð10; 12; 14Þ 13.6

8
> max f
>
>
>
> subject to :
>
> 8
>
>
>
> <f;
> i ¼ s;
< X X
xij  xji ¼ 0; 8i 2 V  fs; tg; ð2Þ
>
> >
:
>
>
j:ði;jÞ2A j:ðj;iÞ2A
f ; i ¼ t;
>
>
>
> 1
>
>
> x ij 6 U ij ð a Þ; ði; jÞ 2 A;
:
xij P 0; ði; jÞ 2 A:
Thus, the solution to model (2) is just the maximum flow of deterministic network N ¼ ðV; A; c; s; tÞ, where the capacity of
each arc ði; jÞ 2 A is U1
ij ðaÞ. Thus, We can obtain the maximum flow of N ¼ ðV; A; c; s; tÞ by using generic preflow-push algo-
rithm or other classic algorithms. The theorem is proved. h

Theorem 4 shows how to obtain a-maximum flow. Next, we further investigate the property of the model for obtaining
the inverse distribution of uncertain maximum flow.

Theorem 5. In network f N ¼ ðV; A; n; s; tÞ, each nij has a regular uncertainty distribution Uij . Then, the inverse uncertainty
distribution of f is determined by

W1 ðaÞ ¼ f ðU1

ij ðaÞjði; jÞ 2 AÞ:

Proof. For model (1), f is a continuous function with respect to the capacity of each arc. Obviously, increasing the capacity of
each arc, we will get a greater flow. That is,

f ðxÞ > f ðyÞ;

where x ¼ fxij jði; jÞ 2 Ag; y ¼ fyij jði; jÞ 2 Ag, and xij > yij . Thus, f is a strictly increasing function.
By Theorem 3 and 4, we can easily obtain the inverse uncertainty distribution of f with respect to a. The theorem is
proved. h

4. Solution algorithm

Generally, Monte Carlo simulation or heuristic algorithms are used to obtain solution to uncertain programming with
indeterminacy factors. A disadvantage of these methods in comparison to exact mathematical methods is that they usually
provide only statistical estimates or approximate solutions, not exact results.
Theorem 4 provides a better way to obtain the a-maximum flow in uncertain network. We only need to employ the gen-
eric preflow-push algorithm to find the maximum flow of the corresponding deterministic network. Because computers
always store capacities ðU1 ij ðaÞ; ði; jÞ 2 AÞ as rational numbers and we can convert rational numbers to integer numbers
by multiplying them by an appropriate number [30], in this paper capacities are assumed to be rational numbers. Hence,
 S. Ding / Applied Mathematical Modelling 39 (2015) 2056–2063 2061

Fig. 2. Network f
N when a ¼ 0:9.

based on Lemma 1, Theorem 4 and Theorem 5, we can design the following optimal solution algorithm for obtaining a-max-
imum flow.

Algorithm.

Step 1. Give a predetermined confidence level a and calculate U1

ij ðaÞ; ði; jÞ 2 A.
Step 2. Construct the corresponding deterministic network N ¼ ðV; A; c; s; tÞ, and set the capacity of each arc uij
equal to U1
ij ðaÞ.
Step 3. Employ the generic preflow-push algorithm to find a-maximum flow in network N .

This algorithm runs in Oðn2 mÞ time (n is the number of nodes and m is the number of arcs) which is the same as that of
generic preflow-push algorithm.

5. Numerical example

In this section, we give an example to illustrate the algorithm. A network f N ¼ ðV; A; n; s; tÞ is shown in Fig. 1. The a-max-
imum flow is f with uncertainty distribution W. The capacity of each arc ði; jÞ is listed in Table 1. For convenience, if nij is a
constant, we set U1 1 1
ij ðaÞ ¼ c, for any a 2 ð0; 1Þ. Thus, we can calculate Uij ð0:9Þ for each nij . Values of Uij ð0:9Þ are also listed
Table 1. Then, we can obtain the following results:

(1) the a-maximum flow when a ¼ 0:9;

(2) the uncertainty distribution of f ðnÞ.

Using the data in Table 1, we construct the network f

N when a ¼ 0:9. It is shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 3. Final residual network.

Fig. 4. The optimal solution when a ¼ 0:9.

2062 S. Ding / Applied Mathematical Modelling 39 (2015) 2056–2063

Table 2
List of a-maximum flows.

a xs1 x12 x13 x2t x3t f ¼ W1 ðaÞ

1 17 6 11 6 11 17
0.9 16.8 6 10.8 6 10.8 16.8
0.8 16.6 6 10.6 6 10.6 16.6
0.7 16.4 6 10.4 6 10.4 16.4
0.6 16.2 6 10.2 6 10.2 16.2
0.5 16 6 10 6 10 16
0.4 15.6 5.9 9.7 5.9 9.7 15.6
0.3 15.2 5.9 9.3 5.9 9.3 15.2
0.2 14.8 5.9 8.9 5.9 8.9 14.8
0.1 14.4 5.8 8.6 5.8 8.6 14.4
0 14 5.8 8.2 5.8 8.2 14

0.9

0.8

0.7

0.6
α

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
14 14.5 15 15.5 16 16.5 17
f

Fig. 5. Uncertainty distribution of f.

Then, we solve 0.9-maximum flow problem using the generic preflow-push algorithm. We obtain the final residual net-
work in Fig. 3 (eðÞ are excesses of nodes, dðÞ are distance labels and r ij is residual capacity of any arc ði; jÞ 2 AÞ.
Now the network contains no active node. The a-maximum flow in the network is shown in Fig. 4 and its value is 16.8.
Choosing different a and repeating the above process, we obtain the uncertainty distribution of f, which is listed in Table 2
and plotted in Fig. 5.

6. Conclusion

Interpretations of indeterminacy phenomena may vary from time to time or person to person. Uncertainty theory pro-
vides a new tool to deal with indeterminacy. Under the framework of uncertainty theory, we present an extension to the
classic maximum flow problem whose network capacities are uncertain variables instead of crisp values. The problem
was formulated by an a-maximum flow model. The relationship between the a-maximum flow model and its crisp equiv-
alent is proved, and the uncertainty distribution of the uncertain maximum flow is derived. Some important properties of the
model are analyzed, which help to develop a polynomial time algorithm. At last, an a-maximum flow example is given and
solved by the algorithm.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. U1404701 and Grant No.
61273044) and the Humanity and Social Science Youth Foundation of Ministry of Education of China (Grant No.
13YJC630012).

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