Preface
The first connection in the GSM network was set up in 1991 and thisyear marks the onset of the dynamic development of cellular telephonywe are experiencing today. The unquestionable success of the GSMtelephony has motivated further research in the field and thedevelopment new technologies for cellular telephony. Initially, itwas assumed that cellular networks would also provide their userswith multimedia services and would offer access to the Internet. Subsequent research eventually succeeded in working out a standardfor the third-generation telephony (UMTS). However, UMTS networktelephony has been developing at a much slower pace than its GSMpredecessor, hampered by substantially high costs of rendering anetwork operational. Currently, services provided by the UMTSnetwork are offered by most cellular network operators. The extensionof a second-generation cellular network and the construction of athird-generation network must involve installation of new systems inthe network that make it possible to increase the number ofsubscribers and to introduce new services, primarily those that havetheir quality parameters defined. Within this context, the need todesign optimum network resources through a substantial reduction inthe costs of network modernization is a topical and particularlyimportant issue. The design process involves the determination of thenetwork topology (the number of nodes, that of the structure, etc.), defining its resources (capacity) and preparing appropriatemanagement ...
