Network Planning Problems in Telecommunications

This chapter describes the main results of two decades of experience in studying and applying optimization models in the telecommunications sector. The Brazilian information technology policy has enabled during this time many fruitful contracts among some universities and companies of the sector, and the author with some colleagues have been engaged in this process with emphasis in the use of operations research (OR) methods. The author has also been benefited from the cooperation with French institutions that have similar engagements in that country, in such a way that the chapter is in part grounded in real case studies that have motivated research and development of different decision support systems. The chapter synthesize the framework that has been used to integrate models of local access and backbone networks, and then presents a past and future perspective on how is progressing the use of OR models to address the important questions of routing, planning and pricing services in telecommunication and computer networks. Most of the applications are related to the literature and have universal character, but we try to point out in this experience how different cultures, geography and politics impact and shape the way operations research is practiced around the world.