An efficient heuristic for the expansion problem of cellular wireless networks

In this paper we propose a model for the expansion problem of the network subsystem (NSS) of a universal mobile telecommunication system (UNITS) wireless cellular network considering an update in the base station subsystem (BSS). The objective is to minimize the expansion cost of the network subsystem while considering network performance (e.g., call and handover blocking). Since the network expansion problem is a generalization of the design problem, the proposed model can also be used for designing networks. In order to find good solutions, we propose a heuristic based on the tabu search principle. Finally, we present a performance analysis of the proposed heuristic. The analysis shows that quasi-optimal solutions are found with the proposed heuristic. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.