A Model for mobile phone tower strength and coverage for survival in disaster condition

Abstract

Mobile phone towers strength and coverage after happening natural disaster are one of the most important issues in set covering. Every day advances and developments of mobile phone technology have made the telecommunication industry and transferring equipment more important and subscribers and users of the mobile phones and increasing which requires better planning. So, the subject of coverage ability of the cell phone towers is very important. Natural disasters for example earthquake, flood, storm, landslides and activating volcano affect roads, bridges, communication systems, electrical supplying and availability to facilities. Extensive human casualties and huge economic damages are showing prediction necessity and programming for facing these events preventing crisis occurring This paper develops location and strengthening of cell phone towers to maximize service coverage and minimize the loss of communication if natural disaster happens. In addition, proposed model considers backup and emergency coverage. We present a case study of our approach for disaster planning for disaster scenario in a region of Iran. Numerical experiments demonstrate the significance and applicability of the developed model for actual decision-making problem.

Keywords

• covering location problem
• cell phone towers
• natural disasters
• disaster planning