Hard handoff minimization using genetic algorithms

To set up personal communication services networks using code division multiple access cellular system standard, cost is always an important factor for consideration. In this paper, we aim to present a genetic algorithm-based method to reduce the cost of facilities as much as possible while the service performance is guaranteed. Handoff induces a cost to the investment significantly; thus, hard handoff minimization is desired. We formulate a combinatorial optimization problem to minimize the weighted-distance costs and hard handoff cost. Also, an efficient searching technique, genetic algorithms (GA), is adopted in this minimization problem. Both single objective and multiple objective approaches of GA are applied to the problem. It is found that the results obtained by the single objective approach can provide small weighted distance costs and hard handoff cost while the network partition is still balanced. © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.