An approach for selecting optimum number of base stations using harmony search

In order to improve the quality of broadband communications services, cellular providers have upgraded from 3.5G cellular technology to 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE). The consequence is the provider must build a communications infrastructure that is 4G LTE eNodeB network but efficiently in terms of financing. The solution that can be taken is to utilize a Base Transceiver Station (BTS) of the existing GSM network as 4G LTE eNodeB. Due to the characteristics of different networks, not all of the existing BTS can be used. Therefore, this paper has conducted a study of determining optimal number of base stations for the eNodeB in Denpasar using Harmony Search (HS) methods. In the implementation, the HS will optimize points of the base stations based on the analysis of total path loss that was calculated using Welfisch-Ikegami propagation models. The simulation results showed 189 of the 211 existing BTSs chosen as optimal 4G LTE eNodeBs having a total pathloss value of 117,087.18 dB. In other words, there are 22 existing BTSs are not considered optimal and the total pathloss value is reduced by 3169.43 dB.