B&B procedures or steps
  • Starting by considering the root problem, the lower-bounding and upper-bounding procedures are applied to the root problem
  • If the bounds match, then an optimal solution has been found and the procedure terminates
  • Otherwise, the feasible region is divided into two or more regions, these subproblems partition the feasible region
  • If an optimal solution is found to a subproblem, it is feasible solution to the full problem, but not necessarily globally optimal
  • If the lower bound for a node exceeds the best known feasible solution, no globally optimal solution can exist in the subspace of the feasible region represented by the node. This node can be removed from consideration
  • The search proceeds until all nodes have been solved or pruned, or until some specified threshold is met between the best solution found and the lower bounds on all unsolved subproblems