Handover Enhancement in LTE-advanced Relay Networks

LTE and IEEE 802.16 WiMAX are competing access network technologies in 4G wireless networks. LTE is one of 3GPP standards while 802.16 WiMAX is standardized by IEEE. Although WiMAX already commercially operates in Taiwan, it is limited to the independently new system that cannot compatible with current 3G system. Hence, the cost of system construction is higher and cannot be popularized fast. On the other hand, LTE is developed by 3GPP which is organized by telecommunication manufactories and operators. Moreover, LTE is backward compatible with 3G/UMTS cellular systems. The LTE specifications define how user equipments (UEs) connect and communicate with base stations (eNBs). The enhanced version, LTE-Advanced, add a new entity called relay node (RN) to enlarge service coverage. The architecture is changed and becomes more complicated when RN is added. This paper focuses on handover procedure in LTE-Advanced networks and proposes a smart forwarding mechanism to improve handover performance.