Information Utilization Ratio in Heuristic Optimization Algorithms

Heuristic algorithms are able to optimize objective functions efficiently because they use intelligently the information of the objective functions. Thus information utilization is vital to the performance of heuristics. However, the concept of information utilization has remained vague and abstract because there is no reliable metric to reflect the extent to which the information of the objective function is utilized in heuristic algorithms. In this paper, the metric of information utilization ratio (IUR) is defined, which is the ratio between the utilized information quantity and the acquired information quantity in the searching process. IUR proves to be well-defined. Several examples of typical heuristic algorithms are given to demonstrate the procedure of calculating IUR. The results also reveal that elevating IUR is the potential cause of many algorithmic improving works. IUR can be an index of how exquisite an algorithm is designed and guide the design of new heuristics and the improvement of existing ones.