# A Novel Method to Determine the Optimal Location for a Cellular Tower by Using LiDAR Data
## 1 Introduction  
A cell phone tower is an important component of the network since it transmits signals to cell phones, and its strength varies with the location of the tower. The strength of a cell phone tower's signal is measured in decibel milliwatts (dB m). The dead zone occurs when a cell phone user (receiver) has an excellent reception of the network signal at one location but low reception on the other surrounding side at the same time. The cell phone signal has a relatively low power output (typically at less than 1 milliwatt). The signal strength is typically measured in the negative dB m range in broad areas. In India, a signalstrength of \(-50\) dB m is considered to be excellent for a given location. When an urban area must give acceptable signal strength to every area, a mobile phone tower must be placed in an optimal location and at an appropriate height. In addition, the optimal site is determined by the placements of the building's features, terrain data points, ground points, and other things in the vicinity [1]. As a result, the transmission of the cell tower signal is determined by the placements of the towers and the routes that the signal takes before hitting the end of any user location (receiving point). Starting from the source, a signal might have a direct or indirect path, i.e., from the position of a cell phone tower before arriving at any user location (receiver). In the indirect path, the signal can propagate via diffraction (top of building and around the sides) or reflection (from the ground or via wall). Signal propagation involves signal attenuation owing to distance, diffraction, reflection, and other factors [2,3]. The selection of an appropriate location necessitated the use of 3D terrain data, which is often represented as point cloud data with x, y, and z values. It comes in the form of a raster, vector, or point cloud and presents a challenge to extract the terrain's features [4, 5, 6]. Fulfilling the demands of an increasing number of users requires cell phone towers to be placed at the optimal location, and it is a challenging task [7]. For achieving accurate tower placement, several research works have been performed in the cell placement field [8]. In research by [PERSON] et al. [9], an attempt to explain a potent algorithm to identify the optimal cell phone tower positions by approaching three algorithms was done. Among these three, the first one is the greedy algorithm (by making the best possible choice that seems best at the particular moment), the second happens by the ratio of heuristics, and the third one by the intelligent genetic algorithm [10]. It was concluded that the genetic one is the best long-term algorithm. Another study by [PERSON] et al. [11] uses a geographical information system and a spatial data mining system to find the best possible tower location. This research was accomplished by using the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) on the satellite project area image [12, 13, 14]. Similarly, a three-step algorithm was proposed by [PERSON] et al. [15] for finding out the best height of the cell phone tower. The algorithm computes the most cost-effective position and altitude for tower placement to achieve suitable signal strength [16, 17, 18]. To maximize the cell tower placement, geospatial mining with a Geographic Information System (GIS) is used as a tool in research by [PERSON] et al. [11]. A review regarding signal monitoring is discussed by the author in [19,20]. In study [21], the geographic data from multiple sources, comprising satellite data, topographical maps, local digital maps, and specifications of existing towers [22] (such as latitude and longitude, antenna height, and frequency bands), in the project region (see Figure 1) was investigated. Using these data, ArcGIS software was used to create multiple layers to find the best location. Dead zones in cell transmissions and areas of an existing cellular tower that overlap have been identified [23].