Station Layouts in the Presence of Location Constraints (extended Abstract) Research Supported in Part by Mitacs Project Canccom (complex Adaptive Networks for Computing and Communication)

In wireless communication, the signal of a typical broadcast station is transmited from a broadcast center p and reaches objects at a distance, say, R from it. In addition there is a radius r, r < R, such that the signal originating from the center of the station is so strong that human habitation within distance r from the center p should be avoided. Thus every station determines a region which is an \annulus of permissible habitation". We consider the following station layout (SL) problem: Cover a given (say, rectangular) planar region which includes a collection of buildings with a minimum number of stations so that every point in the region is within the reach of a station, while at the same time no building is within the dangerous range of a station. We give algorithms for computing such station layouts in both the one-and two-dimensional cases.