Cost Standards for Communication Signal Base Stations

Base Transceiver Station (BTS). Table 5 gives the cost estimates for a Base Station obtained from the Operator. Thus the total cost of a Base Station and the supporting infrastructure is INR 4.5 Million approximately. Let us consider that there are 5 villages and the objective is to cover all these villages with minimum number of towers.

The number of Base Stations made available is varied and the proportion of population that can be covered with high quality signal is obtained. The number of Base Stations is taken to be a constraint for the various scenarios. The proportion of population to be covered (i.e within 5KM) is 100% in each scenario and is taken as a constraint.

In this study the Base Station location problem is modelled as a discrete facility location problem and methodology that would help deal with conflicting network planning objectives i.e. cost, signal quality and coverage is presented and the best strategy under budget uncertainty is also explored.

Hence, additional base stations (BSs) may be needed to satisfy the new demand. This case addresses the application of dynamic permanent demand for service such as establishing a new residential area over several time periods where new demand clusters are created in each time period as the residential area expands.

Thus it follows that, even under uncertainty, the best strategy for the Operator is to plan for the long term and build a subset of Base Stations from the global optimal solution in the short term, especially if the final goal is to provide less than or equal to 86% coverage.

Once the Operator decides on the proportion of population to be covered and the proportion of population to be provided high quality coverage the optimization model can be used to determine the optimal Base Station locations instead of the trial and error method using the planning tool as done currently.