Evolution of planning for wireless communication systems

In this paper we provide a detailed and comprehensive survey of proposed approaches for network design, charting the evolution of models and techniques for the automatic planning of cellular wireless services. These problems present themselves as a trade-off between commitment to infrastructure and quality of service, and have become increasingly complex with the advent of more sophisticated protocols and wireless architectures. Consequently these problems are receiving increased attention from researchers in a variety of fields who adopt a wide range of models, assumptions and methodologies for problem solution. We seek to unify this dispersed and fragmented literature by charting the evolution of centralised planning for cellular systems.