Green Design of Single Frequency Networks by Multiband Robustness and a Hybrid Metaheuristic

The passage to a second generation of broadcasting Single Frequency Networks has generated the need for reconfiguring and redesigning existing networks. In this work, we present a robust optimization model for the green design of such networks based on the digital television DVB-T2 standard. Our robust model pursues protection against uncertainty of signal propagation in a complex real-world environment. As reference model, we adopt Multiband Robustness and we propose to solve the resulting model by a hybrid metaheuristic that combines mathematically strong formulations of the optimization model, with an exact large neighborhood search. We report computational tests based on realistic instances, showing that the multiband model grants highly protected solutions without reducing service coverage and without leading to a high price of robustness.