A Dual-Connection based Handover Scheme for Ultra-Dense Millimeter-Wave Cellular Networks

TL;DR

This paper introduces a dual-connection handover scheme for ultra-dense millimeter-wave cellular networks, reducing handover frequency and delay by enabling simultaneous connections to two base stations, thus improving user experience.

Contribution

It proposes a novel dual-connection handover scheme that allows seamless switching and packet forwarding, enhancing performance in ultra-dense millimeter-wave networks.

Findings

Significantly reduces handover rate

Decreases handover delay

Improves overall network performance

Abstract

Mobile users in an ultra-dense millimeter-wave cellular network experience handover events more frequently than in conventional networks, which results in increased service interruption time and performance degradation due to blockages. Multi-connectivity has been proposed to resolve this, and it also extends the coverage of millimeter-wave communications. In this paper, we propose a dual-connection based handover scheme for mobile UEs in an environment where they are connected simultaneously with two millimeter-wave cells to overcome frequent handover problems. This scheme allows a mobile UE to choose its serving link between the two mmWave connections according to the measured SINRs and then the corresponding base stations may forward duplicate packets to the UE. We compare our dual-connection based scheme with a conventional single-connection based scheme through ns-3 simulation. The simulation results show that the proposed scheme significantly reduces handover rate and delay. Therefore, we argue that the dual-connection based scheme helps mobile users achieve performance goals they require in ultra-dense cellular environments.