A bi-objective location area planning for wireless phone network

Abstract

In this paper, we propose an extension of the classical location area planning (LAP) problem in the wireless telephony system including additional objectives and constraints. The bi-objective location area planning (BOLAP) problem considers the minimisation of both distance costs between base transceiver stations and the base station controllers. A vector evaluated particle swarm optimisation (VEPSO) is then implemented to solve the bi-objective model. This heuristic operates in term of two swarms, each corresponding to one of the two objectives, and exchanging their best experience. A comparison of the proposed algorithm is performed with the statistical method being used by a major wireless telephone company. The empirical results show that the proposed approach dominates the operator’s method on one hand, and that the BOLAP is an effective generalisation of the classical LAP model on the other hand.