Cell-to-switch assignment in cellular networks using barebones particle swarm optimization

Cell assignment is an important issue in the area of resource management in cellular networks. The problem is an NP-hard one and requires efficient search techniques for its solution in real-time. In this letter, in order to minimize the cabling and handoff costs, we use two novel discrete particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithms, the barebones (BB) and the exploiting barebones (BBExp) PSO variants. The impact of network and algorithm parameters on the solution accuracy and computational cost of the methods is investigated. Comparisons with optimization methods in the literature demonstrate the benefits of our proposal.