Connectivity of Cellular Base Stations

A common problem with cellular network is achieving both coverage and capacity with relatively low cost. By placing fewer number of base station towers we can reduce the total cost of deploying cellular networks. Finding the optimal placement for these base stations is crucial in reducing the number of base stations in the network. Unlike other sensor networks where the nodes are scattered in a random manner, for example monitoring hazards environments, we can select the positions to place the base stations. Finding optimal positions for base stations is a mathematical optimization problem, which has lead us to use integer linear programming to find the best placements for a moderately size network. Thus optimal placement is achieved in the cases when possible. We measure the performance of the position of the base stations by simulating random walks of mobile nodes in the networks measuring both transmission and reception.