Online PN Offset Planning: An Example of Cellular Network Autoconfiguration

The growth and evolution in wireless networks continues to increase the importance of operational expenditures by service providers, which in turn creates demand for network solutions that will reduce operator intervention such as autoconfiguration. In this paper we study PN offset assignment as an example of the autoconfiguration of a shared resource in a wireless network. We explore various types of data that might be available for autoconfiguration, and propose several online planning algorithms. We study how these data influence the choice of algorithm and impact the quality of the PN offset plan obtained. We also explore how these algorithms and the PN offset plans generated can be changed if we relax the online requirement and allow in-service base stations to change their PN offsets.