Network Analysis and Graph Models for Optimising Telecom Tower Maintenance in Bauchi State

This study applies graph theory and network analysis to the optimisation of telecommunications tower maintenance scheduling and routing in Bauchi State, North East Nigeria, where dispersed tower infrastructure and difficult road conditions pose significant logistical challenges for mobile network operators seeking to maintain service quality. The three major mobile network operators with significant tower presence in Bauchi State collectively manage over 400 base transceiver station towers spread across the 20 local government areas of the state, with preventive and corrective maintenance activities requiring regular field engineer visits. The study models the tower network as a weighted graph, with nodes representing tower sites and edge weights encoding road distances and estimated travel times derived from geographic information system routing analysis. The Chinese postman problem formulation is applied to determine optimal maintenance patrol routes that minimise total travel distance while ensuring all tower sites are visited within prescribed maintenance intervals. The k-postman variant is implemented to accommodate the multi-engineer team deployment typical in practice. Additionally, a minimum cost spanning tree analysis is used to identify the most cost-effective network of access roads for maintenance vehicle routing. Computational solutions are obtained using Python's NetworkX library, and results are presented as geographic route maps superimposed on Bauchi State administrative maps. The optimised routing schedule reduces total annual maintenance travel distance by approximately 17 percent relative to current practice. Keywords: graph theory, network analysis, Chinese postman problem, telecom maintenance, Bauchi State