Indexing mobile objects: A strategy for supporting dynamic channel allocation in cellular networks

In cellular networks, communication among mobile devices is accomplished through base stations (fixed antennas). A base station allocates communication channels whenever a mobile device (a cell phone, for example) in its coverage area requests communication with some other device (mobile or fixed). With the rapidly growing number of mobile devices, the use of communication channels available in cellular networks needs to be optimized. To efficiently optimize the use of communication channels in cellular networks dynamic (on-the-fly) channel allocation may be used, using algorithms for that purpose; however such algorithms demand previous knowledge of the number of mobile devices in the area of coverage of a given base station. In this paper, we propose a strategy to support dynamic channel allocation in cellular networks by predicting the number of mobile devices in the area covered by a base station at any given moment. The proposed strategy is based on an indexing mechanism for mobile objects. The results obtained through experiments prove the efficiency of the proposed strategy.