Introduction

Integer and combinatorial optimization problems arise when a large number of discrete organizational decisions have to be made, subject to constraints and optimization criteria. This monograph describes and investigates new domain-independent local search strategies for linear integer optimization. This chapter briefly introduces integer optimization and heuristics, and presents an outline of integer local search, the approach to integer optimization that is the subject of this book. Integer local search generalizes local search for propositional satisfiability to linear integer optimization. Research in this area is situated in the interface between artificial intelligence and operations research. Since the two fields have been relatively separated in their past, terminology conflicts occasionally arise that we will attempt to point out.