Mobility prediction based seamless RAN-cache handover in HetNet

The radio access network (RAN) cache is recently proposed to improve quality of experience perceived by mobile users on Internet content access and reduce intense pressure on the backhaul network. However, because RAN caches (e.g., associated with base stations) are located below mobility management entities in mobile core network, the continuity of content service for the handover users with unfinished RANcache content transmission is destroyed. Thus motivated, we design the seamless RAN-cache handover framework based on mobility prediction algorithm (MPA), where the smart terminal with unfinished content service during mobility predicts the break and the target handover access node (such as the BS or the WiFi access point), and pre-triggers the source RAN cache to return the content service to CDN servers outside the core network (CN) or to notify the RAN cache associated with the target handover access node to prepare for serving the handover user. The framework incurs no change to cellular infrastructure including RAN and CN. Different from prior arts of assumption that users' mobility is pre-known, we design the parallel autoregressive (AR) based received signal strength (RSS) prediction approach to achieve mobility prediction, and mathematically define its false probability during different tolerant intervals. The simulation scenario deployment engine and the user movement engine are designed, considering practical issues. Through simulations, the the false probability of seamless RAN-cache handover pre-trigger through MPA is less than 1.36%, and it can be guaranteed less than 1% as the maximal RAN-cache handover processing time is increased by 8%.