Cluster Bounds in Mesh is an option available to the customer in the MegaMesh Network, under Automated Router Planning > Select Small Cell/Meter Cluster Sample Nodes. This option allows you to create a sample file that is broken up into clusters. Creating Cluster Bounds in this specific dialog box is is an automatic way of creating a SAB (Service Area Boundary File) which will work for simple regions. If you are designing for a more complex or larger region using Mesh-aware autoplacement(method 4), it is best to create Service Area Boundary Files to partition the problem.
If you are designing for a more complex or larger region, it is best to create Service Area Boundary Files. The simplest way to create a SAB is with the GUI drawing, drawing SAB files and inclusion areas, selecting them all as graphic objects and saving them to a file. |
An alternative to creating SAB files by hand would be to use the “Create Cluster Nodes” dialog to autogenerate SAB files that will need more editing to fit the specific project.
You have two methods available in the “CreateClusterBounds” section of this dialog. The first method “Create simple bounding polygons for cluster calculation” uses only the cluster boundary width to create clusters. The other method “Create count limited bounding polygons for cluster calculation” also uses the cluster boundary width, but it limits the max number of sampled meters per cluster. In the image below you can see the meters file was broken up into many clusters. The CreateClusterBounds works best when your problem has naturally separated islands of sample points. If that is not the case you can create “mostly decoupled regions by lowering the sample cluster width until you get enough separated regions.
This method of creating a sample file with clusters tends to work best for larger projects that have a few distinct regions. The trick in using this method is to create a few larger clusters and to avoid having to create a lot of smaller clusters. Doing this will make the auto-placement calculation explore many more potential combinations, so the calculation time will take longer. It would still be a good idea to increase your number of trials to a number over one-thousand, with the max being ten-thousand.
For an overview of Automated Router Planning, please use the link below:
Automated Router Planning in Mesh