Sharing the cost of maximum quality optimal spanning trees

Abstract

Minimum cost spanning tree problems have been widely studied in operation research and economic literature. Multi-objective optimal spanning trees provide a more realistic representation of different actual problems. Once an optimal tree is obtained, how to allocate its cost among the agents defines a situation quite different from what we have in the minimum cost spanning tree problems. In this paper, we analyze a multi-objective problem where the goal is to connect a group of agents to a source with the highest possible quality at the cheapest cost. We compute optimal networks and propose cost allocations for the total cost of the project. We analyze properties of the proposed solution; in particular, we focus on coalitional stability (core selection), a central concern in the literature on minimum cost spanning tree problems.