Channel Assignment for Cellular Radio Using Particle Swarm Optimization

The channel-assignment problem in cellular radio networks is known to belong to the class of NP-complete optimization problems. So far, this problem has been solved by heuristic assignment strategies or by the application of combinatorial optimization tools like simulated annealing, neural networks or genetic algorithms. In this paper, we propose a new approach to the channel assignment problem by the application of the powerful optimization technique known as particle swarm optimization (PSO). First the problem of channel assignment is converted to a real number problem then the algorithm is applied to the problem combined with the frequency exhaustive assignment (FEA) strategy. The results obtained by the application to a well-known benchmark problem reveal that this new strategy clearly outperforms the already existing algorithms