A cross entropy algorithm for continuous covering location problem

Covering problem tries to locate the least number of facilities and each demand has at least one facility located within a specific distance. this paper considers a cross entropy algorithm for solving the mixed integer nonlinear programming (minlp) for covering location model. the model is solved to determine the best covering value. also, this paper proposes a cross entropy (ce) algorithm considering multivariate normal density function for solving large scale problems. for showing capabilities of the proposed algorithm, it is compared with gams. finally, a numerical example and a case study are expressed to illustrate the proposed model. for case study, tehran's special drugstores consider and determine how to locate 7 more drugstores to cover all 22 districts in tehran.