Performance of cellular networks and mobile location-driven handover algorithms

The mobile world's rapid growth has spurred development of new protocols and new algorithms to meet changing operating requirements, such as mobile networking and quality-of-service support. Handoff is one of the most critical procedures in cellular systems. Network operators give emphasis to optimizing handover, since it is strongly related to dropped calls, network overload and, consequently, users' criticism. Handoff can be seen as a blind procedure, if it is only based on the comparison of measurements, without information of location. Since signal propagation and path-loss are complex in nature, we can expect unnecessary and wrong handoff executions. Both UMTS and second generation (GSM) systems require redefined handoff algorithms for active connections as smooth mobility support and continuous connection are essential issues for obtaining high performance and increasing user satisfaction. We present a set of intelligent algorithms using mobile terminal (MT) location information and area awareness to assist safe handoff decisions. The implemented algorithms are validated by means of cellular network simulators that clearly show the impact of these techniques to major system performance metrics.