A frequency assignment problem in cellular phone networks

Abstract

We present a mathematical formulation of a \emph{frequency assignment problem} encountered in cellular phone networks: frequencies have to be assigned to stationary transceivers (carriers) such that as little interference as possible is induced while obeying several technical and legal restrictions. The optimization problem is NP-hard, and no good approximation can be guaranteed---unless P = NP. We sketch some starting and improvement heuristics, and report on their successful application for solving the frequency assignment problem under consideration. Computational results on real-world instances with up to 2877 carriers and 50 frequencies are presented.