Metaheuristics for solving a real-world frequency assignment problem in GSM networks

Abstract

The Frequency Assignment Problem (FAP) is one of the key issues in the design of GSM networks (Global System for Mobile communications), and will remain important in the foreseeable future. There are many versions of FAP, most of them benchmarking-like problems. We use a formulation of FAP, developed in published work, that focuses on aspects which are relevant for real-world GSM networks. In this paper, we have designed, adapted, and evaluated several types of metaheuristic for different time ranges. After a detailed statistical study, results indicate that these metaheuristics are very appropriate for this FAP. New interference results have been obtained, that significantly improve those published in previous research.

Optimizing a realistic large-scale frequency assignment problem using a new parallel evolutionary approach

“…(Alabau et al 2002) Greedy, Tabu Search Owner (5700 TRXs) (Mabed et al 2002) Tabu Search Owner (639 TRXs) (Matsui et al 2003) Greedy Owner (Greff et al 2004) (Idoumghar and Schott 2006) Markov Decision Proc. Owner (5700 TRXs) (Salcedo and Bousoño 2005) Neural Network Philadelphia (Colombo 2006) Greedy Generated (1667 TRXs) (Luna, Alba et al 2007a) Greedy Owner (2612 TRXs) (Luna, Blum et al 2007b) Greedy Owner (2612 TRXs) (Luna, Estébanez et al 2008b) Greedy Owner (2612 TRXs) Grid EA (Luna, Nebro et al 2008a) Results obtained in 1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 …”

“…The Local Search (LS) strategy used in this work was proposed by Luna et al (2008b) with the aim to design a method which improves the stochastic behaviour of any metaheuristic approach developed to solve the present version of the frequency assignment problem. All the experiments performed in the study show that all metaheuristics improve their results when they use this local search heuristic, therefore it is a common element included in all the metaheuristics developed here.…”

“…It is important to point out here that this local search will never assign the same frequency or adjacent frequencies to any pair of TRXs within the same sector (these co-channel and adjacentchannel interferences are the highest-cost kind of interference, as shown in equation 2, and they have to be avoided). To obtain detailed information about this local search heuristic, please consult reference (Luna et al 2008b). …”

Optimization algorithms for large-scale real-world instances of the frequency assignment problem

“…This work, which aims at covering these two types of techniques, is a significant extension of the preliminary results of [8,14], obtained within the OPLINK coordinated research project (http://oplink.lcc.uma.es) that involves teams of four Spanish universities. New experiments have been carried out, a new real-world instance has been tested, and the resulting frequency plans have been analyzed.…”

“…The results show that all metaheuristics can handle large real-world FAP instances very efficiently and obtain very low interfering frequency plans. In particular, one of the instances used in this paper (Denver) had been tested in previous research [8,14], and the results have improved significantly for that instance.…”