Heuristic manipulation, tabu search and frequency assignment

Heuristic manipulation attempts to modify the search space of an optimization problem, using information provided by an underlying heuristic method. In this paper it is applied in combination with tabu search to the fixed spectrum frequency assignment problem. The frequency assignment problem involves the assignment of discrete channels (or frequencies) to the transmitters of a radio network, such as a mobile telephone network. Frequency separation is necessary to avoid interference by other transmitters to the signal received from the wanted transmitter at the reception points. Unnecessary separation causes an excess requirement for spectrum. Good assignments minimize interference and the spectrum required. In fixed spectrum frequency assignment the frequency spectrum available is given and the target is to minimize the interference in the network. Computational experiments confirm that the manipulation technique is able to drive the underlying tabu search algorithm towards improved solutions.