Climbing combinatorial fitness landscapes
Comparison of the behavior of classical basic local search techniques and their ability to reach high local optima in combinatorial fitness landscapes. Two particular aspects of local search are considered: pivoting rules (first and best improvement strategies), neutral move policies (how neutral moves are considered during the search). Experimental analysis on four different landscape models (non-neutral and neutral NK landscapes, flow-shop, QAP, MAXSAT).
fitness landscapes local search neutrality hill-climbing first-improvement best-improvement