Open AccessSelf‐organising comprehensive handover strategy for multi‐tier LTE‐Advanced heterogeneous networks
Author(s) -
Behjati Mohammadreza,
Cosmas John Paul,
Nilavalan Rajagopal,
Araniti Giuseppe,
Condoluci Massimo
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
iet science, measurement and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.418
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1751-8830
pISSN - 1751-8822
DOI - 10.1049/iet-smt.2014.0035
Subject(s) - handover , femtocell , heterogeneous network , computer science , computer network , base station , lte advanced , cellular network , 3rd generation partnership project 2 , quality of service , wireless network , telecommunications link , telecommunications , wireless
Long term evolution (LTE)‐advanced was introduced as real fourth generation (4G) with its new features and additional functions, satisfying the growing demands of quality and network coverage for the network operators’ subscribers. The term muti‐tier has also been recently used with respect to the heterogeneity of the network by applying the various sub‐network cooperative systems and functionalities with self‐organising capabilities. Using indoor short‐range low‐power cellular base stations, for example, femtocells, in cooperation with existing long‐range macrocells are considered as the key technical challenge of this multi‐tier configuration. Furthermore, shortage of network spectrum is a major concern for network operators which forces them to spend additional attentions to overcome the degradation in performance and quality of services in 4G HetNets. This study investigates handover between the different layers of a heterogeneous LTE‐advanced system, as a critical attribute to plan the best way of interactive coordination within the network for the proposed HetNet. The proposed comprehensive handover algorithm takes multiple factors in both handover sensing and decision stages, based on signal power reception, resource availability and handover optimisation, as well as prioritisation among macro and femto stations, to obtain maximum signal quality while avoiding unnecessary handovers.