\input zb-basic \input zb-ioport \iteman{io-port 01754725} \itemau{Blanco, R.; Lozano, J.A.} \itemti{An empirical comparison of discrete estimation of distribution algorithms.} \itemso{Larra\`naga, Pedro (ed.) et al., Estimation of distribution algorithms. A new tool for evolutionary computation. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Genet. Algorithms Evol. Comput. 2, 167-180 (2002).} \itemab Summary: In this paper we present an empirical comparison between different implementations of estimation of distribution algorithms in discrete domains. The empirical comparison is carried out in relation with three different criteria: the convergence velocity, the convergence reliability and the scalability. Different function sets are optimized depending on the aspect to evaluate. \itemrv{~} \itemcc{} \itemut{estimation of distribution algorithms; discrete domains; convergence velocity; convergence reliability; scalability} \itemli{} \end