Voronoi-Based ISD and Site Density Characteristics for Mobile Networks

Inter-Site Distance (ISD) is a common measure for characterizing the site density in a mobile network. However, obtaining a good estimation of the ISD for a real world network is not trivial since the physical layout is usually quite more complex than a perfect theoretical hexagonal grid, due to a number of unavoidable factors such as site availability and traffic density. Voronoi diagrams have been suggested for approximating cells from network layouts, providing a method for partitioning the covered area into cells defined by the proximity to the given set of sites. This yields a framework for site coverage approximation based on the actual site distribution, rather than an underlying theoretical model. We present a novel measure, based on Voronoi diagrams, for characterizing the site density of a cellular network and provide a comparison to the more traditional ISD measure. This measure improves capacity assessments and modeling of real networks.