Towards a benchmark for configuration and planning optimization problems

Computer science community is always interested in « benchmarks », e.g. standard problems, by which performance of optimization approaches can be measured and characterized. This article aims at present our research perspectives to achieve a benchmark for concurrent configuration and planning optimization problems. A benchmark is a set of reference models that represents a particular kind of problem. Product configuration and project planning are classic problems abundantly handled in the literature. Their coupling in an integrated model is a more and more handled complex problem; but there is a lack of benchmark in spite of the need expressed by the community during last configuration workshops [config, 2013/2014]]. Two approaches may be combined to obtain a benchmark: (i) generalization of existing real applications (for example, automotive, telecommunication or computer industry), (ii) or using a structural analysis of theoretical model of the problem. In this article, we propose a meta-model of concurrent configuration and planning problem using these two approaches. It shall allow us to supply a representative and complete benchmark, in order to accurately estimate the contribution of existing optimization methods.