Wireless Network Design: Optimization Models and Solution ...

Chapter 5
Mathematical Programming Models for Third
Generation Wireless Network Design
Eli Olinick
Abstract This chapter develops a series of optimization models for third-generation
(3G) cellular network design leading up to a comprehensive model including the selection
of base stations and mobile telephone switching office (MTSO) locations,
and the assignment of mobiles to base stations. The models also consider the design
of a backbone network connecting the base stations, MTSOs, and public switched
telephone network (PSTN) gateways. These models take as input demand for cellular
service in a given planning area, a set of candidate tower and MTSO locations
with corresponding costs, costs for provisioning links between the candidate tower
and MTSO locations as well as costs for linking the MTSOs to PSTN gateway
nodes. Based on these inputs and propagation data for the planning area, the comprehensive
model can be used to determine the optimal selection of radio towers,
MTSO locations, backbone network topology, and the service capacity of the resulting
radio network. For problem instances of practical interest, the model leads to
large, difficult integer programs that require special solution techniques. Nevertheless,
researchers have reported finding high-quality solutions, in reasonable amounts
of CPU time, to problems with hundreds of candidate tower locations supporting
tens of thousands of simultaneous cellular phone sessions. This chapter surveys
strategies that have been developed to achieve these results.
5.1 Introduction
This chapter presents fundamental mathematical programming models for designing
third-generation (3G) cellular networks. Previous generations of cellular networks
employed frequency division multiple access (FDMA) or time division multiple
access (TDMA) schemes to allow multiple users to share the system’s traffic-
Eli Olinick
Department of Engineering Management, Information, and Systems, Bobby B. Lyle School of Engineering,
Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275-0123, USA, e-mail: olinick@smu.edu
J. Kennington et al. (eds.), Wireless Network Design: Optimization Models and Solution
Procedures, International Series in Operations Research and Management Science 158,
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-6111-2_5, © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011
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