Service Coverage Optimization for Facility Location: Considering Line-Of-Sight Coverage in Continuous Demand Space

It is crucial to optimize the line-of-sight (LOS) service coverage in location optimization for facilities such as street lights and surveillance cameras, which provide services based on lights or electromagnetic waves that are sensitive to obstacle blockage issues in geospatial environments. Many approaches based on the maximal coverage location problem (MCLP) model have been developed to help optimize the effective service coverage of facilities. However, maximizing the LOS service coverage in continuous demand space for facility location, defined as LOS-MCLPs in this study, remains a challenge. Thus, we proposed a service coverage optimization model to solve these LOS-MCLPs. A computational geometry algorithm named the visibility polygon (VP) algorithm was employed to simulate the LOS coverage in 2D continuous demand space. Then, this algorithm was coupled with a robust heuristic algorithm to search for the optimal solutions with maximum effective LOS service coverage. The developed model was applied to a Wi-Fi hotspot planning problem. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed model can find optimal solutions for LOS-MCLPs according to the distribution of obstacles. The results from the comparative experiment verify that ignoring the LOS effect in the optimization of LOS-MCLPs might lead to large areas of service dead zones.