UE autonomous cell management in a high-speed scenario with dual connectivity

This study compares the amount of control signaling required by traditional network-controlled mobility management with the one required by user equipment autonomous cell management operations in a real-life highway scenario. The scenario is covered by macros and densely-deployed small cells. Different strategies for preparing the small cells for autonomous operations are studied. Our results show that traditional dual connectivity requires an average of 4.9 messages, per user per second, to be exchanged between the user equipment and the network, and 11.6 messages between e-NodeBs. On the other hand, autonomous cell management operations considerably decrease the amount of signaling. The highest reductions can be achieved by preparing all cells along the highway, cutting the signaling overhead by 92 % over the air, and 39 % between e-NodeBs. Furthermore, the approach of applying a newly developed window-based feature for preparing the cells brings significant benefits.