Base Station Placement Based on Force Fields

Network planning and optimization becomes more and more important in cellular mobile communications due to the growing complexity of the networks. Besides taking new key performance indicators into account such as energy efficiency, the augmented heterogeneity, caused by a variety of radio access technologies (e.g., 3G and beyond as well as WiFi) and network node types (e.g., micro and femto cells), leads to an exploding dimension of the planning process. On the other hand, the degrees of freedom increase as well, giving rise for new optimization techniques. In this paper a novel approach for optimizing cellular deployments is presented. The model is based on characterizing the interrelations (among base stations and between base stations and the environment) by force fields, motivated by the physics of multiple particles in a closed system. Further, an algorithm is proposed which tracks the trajectory of base station locations under the presence of forces, focusing on finding a balanced state with minimal net force. Also, it is elaborated on how to combine different force types in order to capture different quality aspects of a network.