Definition:Network Analysis

Definition

Network analysis is a subfield of operations research in which a class of procedures is used to solve problems of optimization.

Examples

Arbitrary Example

The following is an example of an exercise in network analysis:

Each vertex of the above network represents a town.

Each edge represents a permissible route to travel between each town.

The number assigned to each edge represents the cost to make the journey using that route.

The exercise is to determine the cheapest route between each pair of towns.

Clearly, for example, it is cheaper to travel from $A$ to $D$ via $C$ and $F$ rather than go there directly.

Also see

• Results about network analysis can be found here.

Sources

• 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): network analysis
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): network analysis