a channel assignment system assigns channels to various cells by the optimal partitioning of the available radio frequencies into non - overlapping sets , the optimal grouping of co - user cells , and the best assignment of the former to the latter . the objective is the maximization of traffic handling capacity which , given the multitude of cells , is expressed as the maximization of a bottleneck capacity ratio . the capacity ratio for a cell is defined as the ratio of the number of radio frequencies assigned to the cell over the number of radio frequencies needed to meet blocking probability requirements . the solution to attain an optimal non - regular channel assignment is decomposed into two mathematical programs designated a master program and a subprogram . these are solved iteratively with assistance from a channel set augmentation technique implemented between solutions of the master and subprogram .