Optimal Placement of Wireless Base Stations

Case study: Saudi Arabia

مشروع تحديد المواقع المثلى لأبراج الشبكات اللاسلكية

دراسة تشمل مدن المملكة العربية السعودية

Objective

Placement of wireless base-stations (BSs) has been a challenging problem that involves many design parameters. Usually, placement problems of this kind involve nonlinearities and complex models. Analytical solution for such problems is usually not reachable. One of the main objectives of the placement problem is to achieve a coverage that is above a certain threshold with the minimum number of base-stations. Minimizing the number of base-stations has a direct impact on the cost of providing the wireless service. The placement of wireless base-stations used to be performed using manual techniques with experts input. In placing the base-stations, experts usually take into consideration common design parameters such as setup and maintenance cost, radio coverage, system capacity, spectrum efficiency, and subscriber density. 

 In this project, a fundamentally new approach for solving the base-stations placement problem is addressed. The solution is versatile and can adopt arbitrary radio propagation and demand patterns. The solution method utilizes the convolution theory in finding the minimum number and location of base-stations that satisfy a certain Grade of Service (GoS). The user interface allows the designer to simply provide a color-coded map of the demand pattern and any arbitrary propagation pattern. The algorithm then interprets this information and finds the corresponding optimal solution.  

Main Goals

• Build a mathematical model for the wireless placement problem
• Solve the model using a new optimization approach.
• Build the software and user interface for implementing the solution
• Test the solutions using various means and conduct sensitivity analysis
• Implement the proposed scheme on a real topographical map of a model city in Saudi Arabia.