Optimization Based WLAN Modeling and Design

This chapter describes strategies, software tools, and optimization models that may be used to design wireless local area networks. While most small scale WLAN deployments can be designed in an ad-hoc fashion, medium to large scale networks can benefit from a more methodical design approach. In one design strategy, RF signal strength data are sampled at various locations within a site. Measurements are then used to determine transmitter locations that ensure site wide coverage. This chapter describes approaches that belong to an alternate strategy, which relies on using special purpose software tools. These tools most often attempt to solve an underlying optimization problem maximizing either coverage or capacity. Some coverage models are simple and can be solved with existing commercial optimization software. Solution procedures for sophisticated capacity models with integer variables and nonlinear constraints are not solvable using current commercial optimization software. Therefore, many industrial and academic research groups rely upon metaheuristics for problem solution. The chapter concludes with a discussion of computational results that illustrate the application of two widely known metaheuristics to the WLAN design problem.