Handover Management in Femtocell LTE Networks Under Fast Varying Channels

To increase network capacity of a mobile communication system, three main ways can be derived from Claude Shannon equation. These are the use of smaller cells, increase of bandwidth and improvement of communication technology. Since there is only a finite amount of radio spectrum available and it is also required by other applications, there are limits to bandwidth increment. Combining the later and former, LTE small cells method is best practical way to increase system capacity of mobile communication system. However, deployment of femtocells with small coverage range leads to frequent handover initiation. The problem escalates when femtocells operate in open access mode while accommodating highly mobile users who initiate unnecessary handovers as they stay in a femtocell for short time. To tackle these challenges, a hybrid handover decision algorithm is presented. The proposed algorithm selects the most appropriate target femtocell for handover using velocity of the user, throughput gain and adaptation of signal averaging and hysteresis margin methods. Simulation results show 1.7 times reduction in the amount of handovers in comparison with the traditional handover schemes.