----- ----- | 1 |-----------| 5 |--------------------|
----- ----- | | |
----- | ----- | 2 |-------------- | 7 |
----- ----- |
----- ----- | | 3 |-----------| 6 |--------------------|
----- ----- |
----- | | 4 |--------------|
-----
I have 7 bins, called bin1, bin2,..., bin7. And 7 nodes called node1, node2, ..., node7. Bin2 is adjacent to bin 1, bin3 is adjacent to bin2, etc. The distance between bin2 and bin1 is 1, The distance between bin7 and bin3 is 4, etc.
Each of the bins is to contain one node.
The nodes are connected as per the graph above, ie node1 is connected only to node5, node5 is connected to nodes1,2,7. Etc.
The goal is to pack the nodes into these bins with the smallest TOTAL length.
The nodes selection procedure would be a greedy process whereby (1) the node which has the maximum connectivity would be selected first and put in the centre bin; (2) the next node selected must have been connected to the last node, and be the one with the maximum connectivity. Repeat until all nodes are in bins.
Write a generalised procedure to effectively pack the nodes into the bins in order to achieve the minimum length.
Good luck!
Thanks, Chris