CASH: Context-Aware Smart Handover for Reliable UAV Connectivity on Aerial Corridors

TL;DR

This paper introduces CASH, a context-aware handover protocol for UAVs in urban air mobility corridors, which proactively manages connectivity to reduce handovers and improve reliability.

Contribution

We propose a novel proactive handover protocol that uses UAV trajectory data to enhance connectivity reliability in aerial corridors.

Findings

CASH reduces handover frequency by up to 78%.

CASH maintains low outage probability.

Optimal base station density improves handover performance.

Abstract

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) envisions aerial corridors for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to reduce ground traffic congestion by supporting 3D mobility, such as air taxis. A key challenge in these high-mobility aerial corridors is ensuring reliable connectivity, where frequent handovers can degrade network performance. To resolve this, we present a Context-Aware Smart Handover (CASH) protocol that uses a forward-looking scoring mechanism based on UAV trajectory to make proactive handover decisions. We evaluate the performance of the proposed CASH against existing handover protocols in a custom-built simulator. Results show that CASH reduces handover frequency by up to 78% while maintaining low outage probability. We then investigate the impact of base station density and safety margin on handover performance, where their optimal setups are empirically obtained to ensure reliable UAM communication.