A Unified Stochastic Model of Handover Measurement in Mobile Networks

TL;DR

This paper introduces a comprehensive stochastic model for handover measurement in mobile networks, enabling better analysis and optimization of mobility management in complex multi-cell scenarios.

Contribution

It presents a unified probabilistic framework for analyzing key handover events, including target detection, failures, and measurement triggers, with closed-form expressions applicable to LTE networks.

Findings

Closed-form expressions for handover events

Effective analysis of handover failure probabilities

Application demonstrated in LTE networks

Abstract

Handover measurement is responsible for finding a handover target and directly decides the performance of mobility management. It is governed by a complex combination of parameters dealing with multi-cell scenarios and system dynamics. A network design has to offer an appropriate handover measurement procedure in such a multi-constraint problem. The present paper proposes a unified framework for the network analysis and optimization. The exposition focuses on the stochastic modeling and addresses its key probabilistic events namely (i) suitable handover target found, (ii) service failure, (iii) handover measurement triggering, and (iv) handover measurement withdrawal. We derive their closed-form expressions and provide a generalized setup for the analysis of handover measurement failure and target cell quality by the best signal quality and \st{minimum duration outage} \textit{level crossing properties}. Finally, we show its application and effectiveness in today's 3GPP-LTE cellular networks.