A unified heuristic framework for uncertain telecommunication problems

The exponential growth of telecommunication networks, and the addition of uncertainty and dynamism to related problems, are challenges related to the fifth generation of wireless systems. Generally, problems such as these are solved with heuristics customized and hybridized with other techniques such as simulation or exact formulations, or even other heuristics. The aim of this study is to explore and develop a unified framework to solve multi-stage problems under uncertainty, with a focus on telecommunications problems. The proposed method is based on the Biased Random-Key Genetic Algorithm (BRKGA), due to its good performance on deterministic problems of the area, and whose problem-agnosticism, multi-solution, and multi-population nature are the basis of the methodology. The method has been successful in experiments with two multi-stage problems and can be easily adapted to solve other combinatorial optimization problems with multiple stages.