Safety-aware network deployment for 3G cellular systems

Cellular communications has entered a booming era. As an evolution of the second generation cellular network that is mainly used for voice communications, the third generation (3G) network provides an infrastructure for higher data rates and better multimedia services. However, the RF-radiation exposure from 3G base stations has become a public concern. Studies have shown that the 3G base station signals have a more significant radioactive effect on nearby residents than the GSM base stations. When 3G networks are deployed, the carriers should try their best to keep some important sites such as schools, hospitals, or residence buildings to be at a safe distance away from the base stations. In some cases, it may be possible that, no matter how a network is deployed, not all of the sites could have a safe distance away from the base stations. The problem to be solved in this paper is referred to as the maximum safe sites problem: given a planned network with certain capacity, a safe distance, and a set of sites, find a deployment of the planned network such that the number of safe sites is maximized. This paper presents an efficient solution to the maximum safe sites problem. Specifically, the maximum safe sites problem can be solved in O(n/sup 2/logn) time if n sites are to be considered.