Support for mobile communications planning

Communications planners have to consider many factors when deciding how best to provide communications to communications users. For mobile situations, time is critical. Planning in such situations is becoming an increasingly difficult task, and manual methods of calculation and planning are rapidly becoming obsolete. The computerization of certain stages of the process of communications planning is one solution to the problem. The planning process is subdivided into separate functional areas. Each is supported with a module, and the modules are then integrated to form a complete communications planning system. The software produced helps to perform mechanical and repetitive tasks, do complex mathematical calculations and keep track of large amounts of information, which would put a strain on human memory. The vital decisions are always made by the user, who may have other non-technical factors not considered by the software. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.