Modeling of Channel Allocation in Broadband Powerline Communications Access Networks as a Multi-Criteria Optimization Problem

The planning process of the Broadband Powerline communications access networks contains two main problem parts: the Generalized Base Station Placement (GBSP) problem and the PLC Channel Allocation Problem (PCAP). The GBSP is investigated/solved in our previous works. In this paper, we focus on the P-CAP. The task of the P-CAP consists in allocating a sub-set of channels from an available set of PLC channels to each base station in the BPLC site. Two optimization objectives are considered for the solution of this problem; namely the maximization of the resource reuse and the minimization of the generated interferences in the site. These objectives are conflicting, since the optimization of one of them results in the deterioration of the other. Therefore, this problem is modeled as a Multi-objective (or multi-criteria) Optimization Problem (MOP). Three variants of Pareto-based multi-objective algorithms, using evolutionary search, are used to solve it. Their performances are evaluated on four problem instances.