Optimal channel assignment in cellular systems using tabu search

The channel assignment problem (CAP) in cellular systems has the task of planning the reuse of the limited available frequencies in a spectrum-efficient and interference-minimal way. We adopt an integer programming representation of the static channel assignment (SCA) formulated by Smith and Palaniswami. A tabu search (TS) algorithm is implemented to solve this problem. Two forms of tabu list are used, one of which is the short-term memory; the other contains both the shortand longterm memory. Ten benchmark problems are tested and the results are compared with those obtained by using some popular optimization methods. We show that the TS approach significantly outperforms other optimization techniques. Index Terms Channel assignment problem, tabu search.