Generating scenario trees: A parallel integrated simulation-optimization approach

A crucial issue for addressing decision-making problems under uncertainty is the approximate representation of multivariate stochastic processes in the form of scenario tree. This paper proposes a scenario generation approach based on the idea of integrating simulation and optimization techniques. In particular, simulation is used to generate outcomes associated with the nodes of the scenario tree which, in turn, provide the input parameters for an optimization model aimed at determining the scenarios' probabilities matching some prescribed targets. The approach relies on the moment-matching technique originally proposed in [K. Hoyland, S.W. Wallace, Generating scenario trees for multistage decision problems, Manag. Sci. 47 (2001) 295-307] and further refined in [K. Hoyland, M. Kaut, S.W. Wallace, A heuristic for moment-matching scenario generation, Comput. Optim. Appl. 24 (2003) 169-185]. By taking advantage of the iterative nature of our approach, a parallel implementation has been designed and extensively tested on financial data. Numerical results show the efficiency of the parallel algorithm and the improvement in accuracy and effectiveness. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.