Optimizing Cellular Networks via Continuously Moving Base Stations on Road Networks

Although existing cellular network base stations are typically immobile, the recent development of small form factor base stations and self driving cars has enabled the possibility of deploying a team of continuously moving base stations that can reorganize the network infrastructure to adapt to changing network traffic usage patterns. Given such a system of mobile base stations (MBSes) that can freely move on the road, how should their path be planned in an effort to optimize the experience of the users? This paper addresses this question by modeling the problem as a Markov Decision Process where the actions correspond to the MBSes deciding which direction to go at traffic intersections; states corresponds to the position of MBSes; and rewards correspond to minimization of packet loss in the network. A Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS)-based anytime algorithm that produces path plans for multiple base stations while optimizing expected packet loss is proposed. Simulated experiments in the city of Verdun, QC, Canada with varying user equipment (UE) densities and random initial conditions show that the proposed approach consistently outperforms myopic planners, and is able to achieve near-optimal performance.