Resource allocation in a mobile telephone network: A constructive repair algorithm

To cope with its development, a French operator of mobile telephone network must periodically plan the purchase and the installation of new hardware, in such a way that a hierarchy of constraints (required and preferred) is satisfied. This paper presents the “constructive repair” method we used to solve this problem within the allowed computing time (1 min). This method repairs the planning during its construction. A sequence of repair procedures is defined: if a given repair cannot be achieved on a partial solution, a stronger repair (possibly relaxing more important constraints) is called upon. We tested our method on ten (both hand-made and real) problems. All our solutions were at least as good as those computed by hand by the engineer in charge with the planning.