Access Points Placement as a Discrete Optimization Problem

TL;DR

This paper presents a discrete optimization approach for placing wireless access points, focusing on maximizing coverage and minimizing costs using minimal RF-propagation data and built-in hardware measurements.

Contribution

It formulates access point placement as a multicriteria discrete optimization problem and introduces a method that relies on limited RF data without extensive field testing.

Findings

Effective placement strategies derived from the optimization model.

Reduced need for detailed RF-propagation measurements.

Demonstrated feasibility of cost-effective network expansion.

Abstract

In this work, we consider a method of searching of the direction of a wireless network development (the places of new access points or base stations etc.) optimized with criteria of coverage of important territories and minimum cost of equipment and additional needed infrastructure which does not need the execution of special field testings and determination of the exact geometry of elements of RF-propagation medium and their RF absorbing properties but takes into account the minimum accessible information obtained from built-in measuring instruments of wireless hardware and approximate data of the medium elements shape. The problem of search of a disposition and types of the infrastructure elements of the growing network is formulated as a multicriteria discrete constrained optimization problem solvable with variant probability method [1]. The problem of a medium RF-propagation properties modeling is also formulated and solved as a discrete optimization task.