Planning of tree-topology UMTS terrestrial access networks

In this paper we propose a heuristic planning algorithm for optimizing tree-topology access networks. Our suggested method is able to plan a multi-constrained and capacitated subnetwork tree with a previously dedicated root node. The algorithm is a combination of an adaptive version of the simulated annealing meta-heuristic and a local improvement strategy. We use the proposed method to solve the optimization problem of UMTS (universal mobile telecommunications system) access networks. Beside the description of the model and the algorithm we present a detailed performance analysis of our proposed method using different network configurations and traffic demands. Tests show that our proposed algorithm provides solutions very close to the global optimum and because of its computational efficiency it is usable for planning practical size networks. It is also important to note that our method can be easily adapted for similar planning tasks in case of many other technological backgrounds