Determining the shortest or fastest paths between points in a network is a long-known problem in computer science and operations research. The aim is to determine the length and contained edges of a path between 2 or all points in a network. The mathematicians Edsger W. Dijkstra and George Dantzig developed an algorithm for this back in the 1950s.
Today, in many areas of application, such as route planning, routes and journey times between hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands of locations in huge road networks (e.g. all roads in Europe) have to be determined. The Dijkstra algorithm has undergone considerable further development over the last ten years to make this possible with short runtimes.
With the current algorithms, it is possible to calculate large distance matrices in a very short time. In addition, route planning systems such as TransIT offer the option of taking road closures into account and preventing lorries from turning wherever possible, which requires even more extensive adjustments to the algorithms.
