Matrix based graph coloring algorithm for LTE-PCI assignment and reassignment reduction

Physical Cell Identity (PCI) has an essential role in the operation of the Long-Term Evolution network (LTE/LTE-A), and is specifically used to identify cells in the network. An improper PCI assignment might lead to cell conflict with undesirable consequences. To solve the aforementioned PCI's challenges, this paper presents a new graph-coloring algorithm called the Matrix Based algorithm that provides optimized solutions for PCI problems. To evaluate the algorithm's robustness, its performance has compared to another graph-coloring algorithm namely, DASTUR in terms of PCI reassignment and re-configuration. The result shows the superiority of the Matrix Based algorithm compared to DASTUR.