Trajectory of a moving server following an

Optimal and Obnoxious Path

Neeraj Bora, Lokesh Kumar Meena, B. Dey
Computer Science & Engineering
National Institute of Technology, Silchar India
neeraj.nb.28@gmail.com, lokesh.meena1994@hotmail.com, bdey33@yahoo.com

Abstract This paper considers the problem of

determining the optimal path of routing a server
which traverses a region(network) encompassing a
set of existing clients embedded on an Euclidean
plane by avoiding all the other servers present in the
neighboring region by maintaining a minimum
distance. We are concerned with some variational
calculus optimization problems. Here we formulate
the general problem of maximizing total benefits, or
maximizing the benefits per unit travel time, subject
to constraints on the travel path function and finding
the path that minimizes the weighted sum of lengths
over which the server is within a threshold distance
from other servers. The problems analyzed involved
a direct distance related cost function, employing
squared-Euclidean distance measures constraining
the path as a straight line across a rectangular region
and discuss the properties of the optimal routing
strategy and the objective value, and offer an
economic interpretation of the case when varies.

existing client facilities such that the total benefit related

objective function is maximized, subject to path
functional constraints and also that the path minimizes
the weighted sum length over which the server is within
a minimum thershold distance from the other servers
without incorporating the probability of accidental
leakage of hazardous facilities. Once the probability of
accidental leakage is incorporated, the routing objective
becomes the minimization of expected problem due to
the nearby servers, where accidental leakage of other
servers can cause problem to the moving server within a
neighborhood of the region. As another example, we
might be interested in determining a travel path for a
patrol car that maintains radio contact with several
stations from which service calls originate, or which
might be required to respond to service calls from several
aggregated regions. In each case, some path function may
need to be determined for the moving facility, which is
constrained with respect to functional form, sequence of
starting and ending points or boundaries, distance
travelled, etc., and which optimizes some appropriate
distance-based objective function.

Keywords server, clients, total cost problem, average

cost problem, optimal path, obnoxious path

The remark here is made that while the general class

of problems introduced herein encircle such applications,
the particularly cases we analyse are meant to provide
some fundamental insight by identifying more readly
solvable instances, and hence, may admit only restricted
applications. For example, in a more general setting that
seeks to find a surveillance route for a reconnaissance
plane, it is quite conceivable that such a path might back
up on itself over critical regions, subjects to a total time
limit constraints. Our analysis permits such a
consideration only by way of requiring the path to pass
through a designated set of fixed points, and then solving
the problem of determining an optimal path between
consecutive fixed points separately. Similarly, in the case
of patrol car having to respond to service calls while
travelling through city streets with separation being
measured by rectilinear distances, one might also wish to
delineate a rectilinear path for the moving facility. Again,

I.

INTRODUCTION

With the advancement of technology in the modern

world the needs of the people are increasing day by day.
Mobile network towers and gasoline service stations can
be considered two examples of growing number of
service facilities. In consuming service from this facilities
a significant fraction of customers do so on an otherwise
preplanned trip. What if a server can move in such a way
that it is always near to all its clients and also at a
minimum distance from all the servers in the near by
region. Here in this paper we trying to solve this problem.
Here we address some variational optimization problems
concerned with the determination of a route for a service
facility which moves through a region containing some

our analysis which requires the path to be a function in

the x-y plane, perhaps piecewise linear, would only
approximate such a situation. Also, an adequate coverage
can be ensured in this case by delineating a set of fixed
points as above. Hence, our motivation here is to
introduce a new class of problems, provide insights by
analysing several special instances that model interesting
applications, albeit only approximately, and lay the
ground work for analyzing various suggested extensions
that arise in more general contexts.

Total cost (problems) and average cost (problems)

are given by
distance measures.
path traced by the server.
denotes the permissible variation in a.
P is the set of all elementary paths for the server
is taken as the minimum threshold distance
between 2 servers
a server s on the link (i,j) be denoted by {s;i,j}

B. Formulation :
II.

EXISTING OPTIONS

There are some options which we can consider for

finding the path. Four of them are mentioned below:
1. A optimal straight line path between parallel
boundaries
2. A straight path where the initial and final points
lie anyhwhere on the boundaries of a rectangular
region.
3. Assuming the starting point to be fixed
4. An optimal path function is determined between
two fixed final points

It is supposed that there are some m fixed clients in a

region , with a server N in each region. The coordinates
of the server are given
i= 1, 2, 3, . . . . . ., n.
The region is taken on some x-y reference plane.
Each server moves with a fixed velocity v, tracing a
curve
which is dependent on time t.
The benefit derived per unit incremental time at time t
with respect to existing facility I, by virtue of the path is
given by a functionbetween the fixed clients and the
moving servers where

But in this paper we are considering only one of the

above conditions.
III.

PROBLEM DEFINITION

Hence, over a time framework , the benefit derived is

given by

A. Assumptions:

fixed client locations.

moving servers locations
(with one server in each region).
G is considered to be the network in the given
region.
A be the link set.
The whole place is divided into zones.
In each zone there are M number of clients and one
server.
Each server should stay as close as possible to all
nearby clients and should stay as far as possible
form other server in the vicinity.
Velocity of server is v , traces a curve.
which is
dependent on time t.
,i= 1, 2, 3, . . . . . ., n. . . , . weight associated with
each other servers and clients.

A normalize objective function , namely the total

benefit per unit time is considered depending upon the
problems and constraints faced the moving server, which
is given by

The path traced by the server with respect to some

frame of reference is given by the function
, which satisfies all the boundary
conditions and the functional form restrictions imposed
on the path .
We have,

Thus

ACP(F, l2):

=
Where
Now the total benefit maximization problem based on
(1) is

IV.

PROCEDURE

A.
A straight line paths across a rectangular
region :-

Similarly the problem of maximizing the total benefit

per unit time is given by -

A direct distance related benefit function is given by

Where
, i=1,. . . . ,n are same +ve constant
interaction weight and (p,q)=(1,1) or (2,2) depending on
either the rectilinear (l) or the squared-euclidean (l2)
distance measure.
Equation (3) and (4) translate into total cost and
average cost minimization problems , which are given
by

TCP(F, l):

In this case a bounded region is considered for the

clients and the server which is taken in the form of a
rectangle. It is considered in the x-y plane with a=0 and
a= >0 and b=0 and b= >0
are considered to be the coordinates of the
clients in the region. Here we will determine the optimal
straight path for the server which is originating and
ending at the boundaries of the recantangular region
which start at a=0 and end at a= . The given path has a
constant y coordinates that coincides with either the
median location along the y-axis if this median lines in
[0,
on coincides with b=0 and b= >0 , otherwise ,
whichever is closer to the median location.
Here the total cost problem for this case is not
instructing on the optimal path collapses into
corresponding corner point .Thus only the average cost
problem using l2 and l distance measure are treated in
this section.
For defining the path restriction let
be the set of
straight lines path joining the points with coordinates
and
where
and
.
Determining the optimal values for
as
respectively , the straight line path is given by

breakpoints 0
based on the values of
following result.

Problem
Parameterizing

the

straight

line

a(

as
.

We have from (7)

along the y-axis

, i=1,,n. Then consider the

Theorem. Let the functions

, and
. Then both these functions are convex
and are differentiable on the open intervals (0, ), and
(0, ), respectively, with the corresponding derivatives
being , given as follows:

That
For

For

(18)

(19)

(14)

This above problem decomposes into two separable

problems as follows

And

Problem ACP(

).

We now obtain ACP(

):
(16)

Where

Where
and
.

Proof: First, consider

.Since
| is convex in
,
, Where
. Then from (17), representing
without the absolute value terms on the open interval
, we obtain (18) upon differentiation.
Moreover, for any breakpoint
it can be
verified the left-hand derivative
of
at
is given by (18) as above, and the right-hand
derivative
of
at
, given by the
limit of
as
, also equals (18). Hence,
is differential be on
with its derivative given by
(18).
Note that
can be rewritten as
follows by letting
in (17),
,
|

(17)

Now the breakpoints are defined along the x-axis as

occurring at x=0, x=
and x coinciding with any
value in (0, ), i
.Denote these breakpoints
as 0
. Similarly, define the

This is precisely of the form

in (17), and so by
direct analogy with (18), we derive (19). This completes
the proof.
Given the convexity and the differentiability
characterizations for And As in theorem above, we
can now obtain an optimal solution
to problem
by
separately
minimizing
,
respectively. Hence for example, using (18), if
the
, and if
then
, and
otherwise, , may be obtained by determining a root of

. Similarly, h2 may be optimized using

(19).
Algorithm For Solving ACP(
I.

Determination of
Initialization

:
:

compute
.

If
, and part(II). Otherwise,
set N=0, j=0, and proceed to step 1.
Step 1. Increment j by 1. If j=h, put
, and
go to part (II).
Step 2.Replace
, and replace
N by

. If

Or if

II.

,
, then return to Step

1. Otherwise, compute
part (II).
Determination of
Initialization

, and go to

:
.

replace

N
. If

by
, or if

, then return to
Step 1. Otherwise, compute

Let a server c on the link (i,j) be denoted by {c;i,j},

implying a server on link (i , j) c units from node i. the
coordinates of this server are
(A)
(B)
A server is to routed from an origin to a destination on
a path p, p P , where P is the set of elementary paths
between the origin and the destination restricted to the
links of G. A server is c is kept at a minimum threshold
distance of from another server s while moving on the
path p. We here relate a binary utility function relating to
both the servers c and s.

Compute
If

, and stop. Otherwise, set N=0,

j=v-1, and proceed to Step 1.
Step 1. Decrease j by 1. If j=-1 put
and
stop.
Step 2. Replace Replace
,
and

associated with it. The value of z ranges from zero to the

length of link (i,j). The distance between two points a
and b on the plane are measured using the Euclidean
metric as

and stop.

(C)
The objective function we wish to minimize is

(D)
We write equation (D) as follows to identify the
obnoxious path, for all p P

B. For finding the obnoxious path :(E)

Considering the whole region where the server is
moving as a planar, connected and undirected network
G=(N,A) where N is the set of nodes(which include
servers and clients) and A the link set. Travel of the
server is restricted to be on the links of G. A point s on
the plane has Cartesian coordinates (xs , ys) and node i, i
N has coordinates (xi , yi). A node i has a positive
weight associated wi associated with it which typically
signifies the extent of undesirability of routing the server
near another server.
A positive weight g(i,j) is associated with each link
(i,j) and a population density function f(i,j)(z) is also

(F)
and
(G)
here the server z is on the link (a,b) and the server c is on
the link (i,j).The coordinates of both the servers z and c
are given by equation (A) and (B).Let the terms inside
the braces of (E) be denoted by Q(i,j).

thus we can write

neighborhood which give us different expressions to

compute
.
Thus we obtain :

Hence the objective is to find

We denote the optimal objective value as

, Which is a function of the radius of
contamination .
From (E), (F) and (G) it is found that
, for
all
, hence the restriction to the set of
elementary paths ,P from origin to destination . Q(i,j)
can be viewed as the modified length of the link (i,j)
and
as the modified length of path p.
We obtain two terms in Q(i,j) that need to be
computed - the
represent nodal exposure
and the functions
represent path
exposure. After obtaining function
,
we need to use some numerical routine to integrate it
with
.
We note from equation F and G that
function are identical for any point s on the plane , we
write
(H)
will take a different functional form
depending on the location of the server s and can be
found by considering the intersections of link (i,j)
with a circle of radius centered at s.

(J)

Figure. Regions inside the neighborhood of arc (i,j)

Evaluation of
From equations (F) and (J) we can compute
depending on the location of the server k, as follows:
(a) If
then the server is outside the
neighbourhood of the link (i,j) that is
.
(b)
,
Where
.

Evaluation of
Cosidering the origin to be moved to i and rotating
the axes so that link (i,j) lies on the positive axes.
For finding
the intersections (if any) of the
x-axis with a circle of radius centered at s is to be
known, thus
,
and
(I)
First a region within a distance of link (i,j) is
identified. We consider this region as the
neighbourhood. Now we identify regions within the

Evaluation of
To obtain the correct expression for , we need to
partition link (a, b) into regions identified earlier. We
then substitute Equations (A) and (B) into (I) and then
into the appropriate expressions of F(z; i, j) in Equation
(J). To partition link (a, b), one can simply find the
intersections of link (a, b) with the two complete circles
(of radius and center at nodes i and j) and with the two
horizontal boundary lines of the neighborhood. Once
is determined, it will be combined
with the link density function, f(a, b)(z), to arrive at the
exposure intensity of link (i, j) due to link (a, b).

V.

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

********************************************
VI.

CONCLUSION AND APPLICATIONS

There may be found many application of this paper in

the practical world. Some of the applications may be
viewed as a moving network server for mobiles network,
a moving gasoline station, a moving restaurant etc.
In the paper a new class of problems have been
introduced for the determination of an optimal
constrained path for a moving facility which interacts
with a fixed number of clients. A weighted distance
related cost function employing the squared Euclidean is
used, we analyzed the the average cost per unit distance
or time problems when the path is restricted to be straight
lines within rectangular boundaries.the problem have
been analysed and exploited to develop efficient solution
algorithm for the problem. The path that is found for
server is also seen through that it is obnoxious such that it
does not come near any other server in the region of its
movement by maintaining a minimum distance from
them.
VII. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We would to thank Assistant Professor Mr.

Biswanath Dey for helping us through out the research
work and guiding us in every step of the work for the
successful completion of the paper.
VIII. REFERENCES
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DETERMINATION OF THE OPTIMUM PATH ON THE
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Cartographic Association Conference, Barcelona, Spain,
September 1995.
[2] George F. List, Pitu B.Mirchandani, Mark A. Turnquist
and Konstantinos G. Zografos Modeling and Analysis for
Hazardous Materials Transportation: Risk Analysis,
Routing/Scheduling and Facility Location, Vol. 25, No. 2,
TRANSPORTATION OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
(May 1991), pp. 100-114
[3] ODED BERMAN, RICHARD C. LARSON and
NIKOLETTA FOUSKA, Optimal Location of Discretionary
Service Facilities, Vol. 26, No. 3 (August 1992), pp. 201-211
[4] R. J. Gaskins and J. M. A. Tanchoco, Flow path design
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[5] Stentz, A., Optimal and efficient path planning for

partially-known environments, Robotics and Automation,
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