Clustering of local optima in combinatorial fitness landscapes

Citation

Ochoa G, Verel S, Daolio F & Tomassini M (2011) Clustering of local optima in combinatorial fitness landscapes. In: Coello CC (ed.) Learning and Intelligent Optimization: 5th International Conference, LION 5, Rome, Italy, January 17-21, 2011. Selected Papers. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 6683. LION 5, 5th International Conference on Learning and Intelligent Optimization, Rome, Italy, 17.01.2011-21.01.2011. Berlin Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 454-457. http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-25566-3_35#

Abstract
Using the recently proposed model of combinatorial landscapes: local optima networks, we study the distribution of local optima in two classes of instances of the quadratic assignment problem. Our results indicate that the two problem instance classes give rise to very different configuration spaces. For the so-called real-like class, the optima networks possess a clear modular structure, while the networks belonging to the class of random uniform instances are less well partitionable into clusters. We briefly discuss the consequences of the findings for heuristically searching the corresponding problem spaces.