Minimizing costs in signal provision by communication antennas along a railway line

Abstract In this paper we address a wireless network design problem on a railway line. Given a finite set of locations along a railway line and different types of communication antennas that can be installed at each of these locations, which locations and which type of antenna should be selected to ensure a certain level of signal coverage along the railway line while minimizing construction costs? We formulate the problem as a 0/1 linear optimization model, prove that the problem is NP-hard, and report computational experiments using real and simulated data. The computational tests showed that the model is capable of solving the problem for railway lines longer than any existing real railway lines.