Proposing a mathematical programming model for load balancing in mobile cellular networks

A mobile cellular network consists of several base stations as antennas. Each antenna operates under a coverage radius and can serve users within its range. Based on the number of stations in the city and the overlapping of their service areas, a user may simultaneously be in the radio coverage radius of several antennas. However, he/she will be able to receive service from only one antenna. The number of users for whom each antenna can provide service is limited, and increasing the workload of the base station can lead to disturbances in the network performance. In this research, a linear programming model was presented to balance the workload among base stations in cellular mobile networks, and it was implemented in Lingo software on 12 real data sets in Tabriz city. The simulation results show that the proposed model can achieve the global optimal solution with the objective function equal to zero in eight examples. In the other examples, the local optimum solution with a minimal objective function value is obtained, and the workload is balanced throughout the network base stations.