Context-Aware Handover Policies in HetNets

—Next generation cellular systems are expected to entail a wide variety of wireless coverage zones, with cells of different sizes and capacities that can overlap in space and share the transmission resources. In this scenario, which is referred to as Heterogeneous Networks (HetNets), a fundamental challenge is the management of the handover process between macro, femto and pico cells. To limit the number of handovers and the signaling between the cells, it will hence be crucial to manage the users mobility considering the context parameters, such as cells size, traffic loads, and user velocity. In this paper, we propose a theoretical model to characterize the performance of a mobile user in a HetNet scenario as a function of the user’s mobility, the power profile of the neighboring cells, the handover parameters and the traffic load of the different cells. We propose a Markov-based framework to model the handover process for the mobile user and we derive an optimal context-depen...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2016
• Where: TWC
• Authors: Francesco Guidolin, Irene Pappalardo, Andrea Zanella, Michele Zorzi
• Keywords: TWC 2016