The Physical Cell Identity Assignment Problem: A Practical Optimization Approach
研究了运营商网络中物理小区标识（PCI）分配问题，提出一种混合模因算法，结合约束规划求解器和局部搜索，实验表明优于商业求解器。
The Physical Cell Identity (PCI) is a critical parameter to radio access networks used by the user equipment, like a smartphone, to identify the cell to connect. The PCI misassignment leads to call drops, no voice/data connections, and other sorts of impairments. Many works in the literature only treat the PCI assignment problem from the technological constraints viewpoint. In this work, we take a realistic approach and incorporate several operational constraints found daily in carrier-grade networks. For that, we model the problem with multiple objectives with a strict lexicographical dominance relation. We solve it using a hybrid memetic algorithm with warm start solutions obtained by a constraint programming solver and intensification with path-relinking and custom local search procedures. The experimental results suggest that our approach is superior to commercial solver packages in several scenarios.