Handover Framework for Relay Enhanced LTE Networks

Relaying is one of the proposed technologies for future releases of UTRAN long term evolution (LTE) networks. Introducing relaying is expected to increase the coverage and capacity of LTE networks. In order to enable relaying, the architecture, protocol and radio resource management procedures of LTE, such as handover, have to be modified. A user can be handed over not only between two base stations, but also between relays and base stations, and between two relays. With the introduction of relaying, there is a need for a new procedure to hand over a relay and all its associated users to another base station, allowing a flexible and dynamic relay deployment. In this paper, we extend the LTE release 8 handover mechanisms so that it can accommodate these new handover functionalities in a flexible manner.