Computational experience with parallel mixed integer programming in a distributed environment

Numerical experiments for a parallel implementation of a branch-and-bound m ixed 0/1 integer programming code are presented. Among its features, the co de includes cutting-plane generation at the root node, and employs a new br anching-variable selection rule within the search tree. The code runs on a loosely-coupled cluster of workstations using TreadMarks as the parallel so ftware platform. Numerical tests were performed on all mixed 0/1 MIPLIB ins tances as well as two previously unsolved MIP instances, one arising from t elecommunication networks and the other a multicommodity flow problem.