Channel assignment through evolutionary optimization

Abstract

The problem of assigning appropriate channels to the individual members of a cellular network is an important challenge facing network designers. Heuristics may be used to solve this problem, although in recent years parallel distributed methods have also been suggested. We investigate how an evolutionary inspired computing technique known as genetic algorithms (GAs) may be used. These global optimization techniques avoid many of the shortcomings exhibited by local search techniques on difficult search spaces. The new approach is tested on several problems of different sizes and complexity. The critical aspects of this technique and additional improvements are also discussed.