MS-MD-Shortest route pathfinder for multiple sources to multiple destinations of directed graph models

Abstract

This paper presents a computer package that was developed to obtain the shortest route from the Multiple Sources to Multiple Destinations of Directed Graph Models of the Nigeria refineries to their deports located outside the refineries towns and the Nigeria roads network of motorable road b from multiple sources to multiple destinations directly without decomposing like in the case of the existing computer packages. The existing ones cannot solve the network problem of multiple sources to multiple destination (MSMD) directly but by first splitting the network into single sources to single destination networks and these networks are solved individually before superimposing into a single network manually. Also in the existing computer packages, Network data are not inputted directly before solving the problem, rather only the numerical part of the data is extracted from the network and inputted for solving the network problem and also the solution of the network is not presented in the network-like form rather, they are presented in tables which destroys the beauty of the network. Secondly, some of these computer packages, like Microsoft Excel, need to be reprogrammed before performing these tasks; these make solving such problems very hectic. Hence the need for simpler Graphic User Interface (MSMD-Shortest Route finder) that network models are inputted directly without tempering with the network, splitting the network nor reprogramming and also the solution are presented in a network tree with the summary, which is the objective of this research. The distances of the various roads in the Nigeria roads network were obtained using google map from google GPS and Nigeria Atlas map. The Optimal routes of the Nigeria refineries to their deports by road and Nigeria roads network of motorable road from multiple sources (coastal towns: Lagos, Port-Harcourt, Asaba/warri and Calabar) to multiple destinations (border towns: Katsina, Sokoto and Maiduguri) were obtained using MSMD-Shortest Route finder. The shortest routes obtained by using the MSMD-Shortest Route finder compares favorably with the existing ones and was found to be the best.