Simulated Annealing-Based Advanced Spectrum Management Methodology for WCDMA Systems

In this paper, we propose a new Advanced Spectrum Management (ASM) methodology for WCDMA systems using simulated annealing and the concept of coupling matrix, which is able to capture inter-cell interactions. The proposed methodology takes into account the fact that each cell can be associated to more than one carrier. Simulation results show that the proposed methodology increases spectrum efficiency while guaranteeing the requested QoS levels. Moreover, it allows releasing carriers in some cells, so that they could be eventually used by e.g. secondary cognitive radio users exploiting the flexible spectrum allocation and opportunistic spectrum access.