Acceptance as a success factor for planning wireless network infrastructure

Abstract

Availability of ubiquitous wireless services is taken for granted by most of the people. Therefore, network operators have to deploy and to operate large radio networks that, particularly, support broadband services and applications. One effect is a growing cell density, i.e., the number of required base stations increases. On the other hand, there are people that are afraid of getting harmed by electromagnetic radiation emitted by base stations or there are people that just dislike the prevalence of base station antennas. Both types of people's attitude refer to the field of user acceptance. A high deficiency in acceptance might lead to public disputes, political disputes, and negative economical consequences. To counteract such trends preventively, we propose a mathematical optimization model that allows for planning wireless network infrastructure with respect to user acceptance. While keeping technical and economical aspects as primarily considered planning criteria, we propose a multi-objective optimization model that takes into account user acceptance as an objective. Numerical results demonstrate effects of this approach compared to application of a conventional planning model.