Optimization Problems and Models for Planning Cellular Networks

During the last decade the tremendous success of mobile phone systems has triggered considerable technological advances as well as the investigation of mathematical models and optimization algorithms to support planning and management decisions. In this chapter, we give an overview of some of the most significant optimization problems arising in planning second and third generation cellular networks, we describe the main corresponding mathematical models, and we briefly mention some of the computational approaches that have been devised to tackle them. For second generation systems (GSM), the planning problem can be subdivided into two distinct subproblems: coverage planning, in which the antennas are located so as to maximize service coverage, and capacity planning, in which frequencies are assigned to the antennas so as to maximize a measure of the overall quality of the received signals. For third generation systems (UMTS) network planning is even more challenging, since, due to the peculiarities of the radio interface, coverage and capacity issues must be simultaneously addressed.