A set theory approach to the channel assignment problem

A set-theory framework on the channel assignment problem is presented in this paper. This framework provides a uniform interpretation for the two classes of channel assignment approaches: (1) the centralized assignment based on a predetermined "channel separation matrix", being employed in cellular frequency planning, and (2) the distributed assignment based on actual interference measurements, typically used in cordless telephony. Based on the insights gained, we further propose several algorithms that can be applied to both approaches. A set of simulations is presented to compare our algorithms with some existing centralized assignment algorithms. It is found that our method performs well with a simple procedure that can be easily applied in a distributed fashion for dynamic channel assignment which is an important subject in radio resource management for the emerging personal communications.