In this article we provide a comprehensive review of the handover process in heterogeneous networks (HetNets), and identify technical challenges in mobility management. In this line, we evaluate the mobility performance of HetNets with the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Release-10 range expansion and enhanced inter-cell interference coordination (eICIC) features such as almost blank subframes (ABSFs). Simulation assumptions and parameters of a related study item in 3GPP are used to investigate the impact of various handover parameters on mobility performance. In addition, we propose a mobility-based inter-cell interference coordination (MB-ICIC) scheme, in which picocells configure coordinated resources so that macrocells can schedule their high-mobility UEs in these resources without co-channel interference from picocells. MB-ICIC also benefits low-mobility UEs, since handover parameters can now be more flexibly optimized. Simulations using the 3GPP simulation assumptions are performed to evaluate the performance of MB-ICIC under several scenarios.

Mobility management challenges in 3GPP heterogeneous networks

The 3GPP LTE system has been designed to offer significantly higher data rates, higher system throughput, and lower latency for delay critical services. This improved performance has to be provided and guaranteed under various mobility conditions. Hence, handover (HO) and its performance are of high importance. This paper investigates the performance of the handover procedure within 3GPP LTE in terms of HO failure rate and the delay of the whole procedure. System level simulations within a typical urban propagation environment, with different User Equipment (UE) speeds, cell radii and traffic loads per cell have been performed. The entire layer 3 signalling exchanged via air interface is considered in the simulations. In addition, errors at the Layer 1 (L1) control channels are taken into account. Simulation results show that the handover procedure within 3GPP satisfies the goal of high performance mobility. Namely for cell radii up to 1 km and for UE speeds up to 120 km/h, the HO failure rate lies within the range of 0-2.2% even in high loaded systems. For medium and low loads even at speeds of 250 km/h, HO failure is below 1.3 %. In addition, simulation results show that the handover procedure is robust against L1 control channel errors.

Handover within 3GPP LTE: Design Principles and Performance

In order to expand the downlink (DL) coverage areas of picocells in the presence of an umbrella macrocell, the concept of range expansion has been recently proposed, in which a positive range expansion bias (REB) is added to the DL received signal strengths (RSSs) of picocell pilot signals at user equipments (UEs). Although range expansion may increase DL footprints of picocells, it also results in severe DL inter-cell interference in picocell expanded regions (ERs), because ER picocell user equipments (PUEs) are not connected to the cells that provide the strongest DL RSSs. In this paper, we derive closed-form formulas to calculate appropriate REBs for two different range expansion strategies, investigate both DL and uplink (UL) inter-cell interference coordination (ICIC) to enhance picocell performance, and propose a new macrocell-picocell cooperative scheduling scheme to mitigate both DL and UL interference caused by macrocells to ER PUEs. Simulation results provide insights on REB selection approaches at picocells, and demonstrate the benefits of the proposed macrocell-picocell cooperative scheduling scheme over alternative approaches.

On the Expanded Region of Picocells in Heterogeneous Networks

An Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) based radio-interface is specified by 3GPP for LTE system. OFDMA provides efficient spectral efficiency by reusing complete frequency band in all cells. However it projects high inter cell interference (ICI) especially on cell borders. ICI not only minimizes the cell border throughput but also effects on the handover performance in LTE. Hard handover is standardized for LTE systems using L3-filter, hysteresis, and time-to-trigger mechanisms. The UE needs to receive error free handover command message for successful handover. This becomes critical when high interference is present on cell borders. Inter cell interference coordination (ICIC) is a technique that has been proposed to overcome ICI problems. We have investigated the improvements of LTE handover performance through ICIC. We have shown that significant gain can be achieved by the use of ICIC while maintaining very low handover rates.

Improvement of LTE Handover Performance through Interference Coordination

Wireless communication is playing an important role in our daily life since it offers flexibility and mobility. New multimedia services demand data-rates of up to hundreds of Mbps and thus higher frequency bands are being explored to support these new high data rate services. However, to support mobility, handoff is a must in many of these networks and systems. In the mean time the 60 GHz band has received much attention due to its 5 GHz of the available spectrum globally. However, the 60 GHz channels face many challenges such as high attenuation and NLOS propagation. The high reduction in signal strength as a function of distance results in a small coverage area, thereby causing frequent handoffs for mobile terminals. In this paper, we discuss and compare handoff algorithms intended for WLAN, GSM, UMTS, etc. We study these algorithms from the point of view of their usability in 60 GHz networks and make recommendations for handoff algorithms in such networks.

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A Survey on Handoffs — Lessons for 60 GHz Based Wireless Systems

Handover is one of the key functionalities which tries to keep a user equipment (UE) connected to the best base station (eNodeB). Handover is usually based on the downlink received signal strength (RSS) and carrier-to-interference ratio (CIR) measurements. Processing of the handover measurement is usually done in Layer 1 (LI) and Layer 3 (L3) by the UE, and handover is initiated by the serving eNodeB if certain event criteria are met. L3 filtering can be done in linear domain or decibel (dB) domain. A hard handover algorithm based on the downlink RSS and CIR measurements along with linear and dB domain L3 filtering has been studied by using a dynamic system level simulator for a 3GPP UTRAN LTE recommended scenario. The results suggest that RSS measurement with linear or dB domain L3 filtering is a better criterion for handover in terms of reduced number of handovers for a small penalty on the downlink CIR.

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P.-E. Ostling

Papers

Performance Analysis of Handover Measurements and Layer 3 Filtering for Utran LTE