3.3 Network Location
In the case of route between two main centres, the solution to the the single location problem is basically trivial, subject to the empirical complications discussed Section 3.2. However, once we extend the network to three or in more centres, then route location rapidly becomes more complex, and we have a set of network location problems. Two main classes are examined separate here: (a) "floating point' problems, junctions in the network are allowed where (b) fixed point problems, where to occur at any location in the plane and junctions are confined to a finite set of locations (e.g. cities)
3.3.1 Floating point location problems
Let us assume a simple case where we wish to design a shortest-path network to connect three centres, each of similar population size. In this case, the