Constraint programming in telecommunication
- Reference number
- SM15-0004
- Start and end dates
- 160101-171231
- Amount granted
- 880 000 SEK
- Administrative organization
- Ericsson AB
- Research area
- Information, Communication and Systems Technology
Summary
The main objective of the project is to find new applications of constraint programming in telecommunication. Constraint programming is a research area that is highly represented in academia in Sweden and there is a network for Sweden-based researchers and practitioners of Constraint programming. However, constraint programming is still not widely used by industry. The expected results of the project are new approach to analyze large amount of data produced by mobile network and new methods to solve combinatorial problems faced by telecommunication engineers during developing and testing of Radio Base Station. The project will be carried out at the Department of Information Technology at Uppsala University and the goal of the project is to strengthen collaboration between Ericsson and Uppsala University in the area of constraint optimization.
Popular science description
Developing and testing of Radio Base Station require handling and analyzing large amount of data. For example, correctness of large logs, which are produced during text execution, should be analyzed. Constraint programming is a suitable technology to deal with such problems. A constraint problem is specified as a set of decision variables that have to be assigned values so that the given constraints on these variables are satisfied, and optionally so that a given objective function is minimised or maximised. There are many advantages of using constraint programming. It is easy to model telecommunication protocol using constraint specification language. Constraint specification is a declarative specification of protocol rather than procedural implementation. Declarative specification makes it easier to modify programs. Constraint solvers can be extended by adding problem-specific heuristics.