Simulation-based Analysis of Experimental 5G NR Downlink CSI-RSRP-based Handover Performance

In the last years, 5G New Radio (NR), introduced in 2019 in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Release 15, has become the global radio standard for 5G networks. The increasing number of available 5G gNodeBs (gNBs) makes handover management crucial, especially from the point of view of the Quality of Experience (QoE) of a User Equipment (UE). In order to analyse the handover behaviour in 5G networks, we derive a Matlab-based simulator for location-based handover management. As a first step, an accurate simulation model of an experimental 5G NR communication system is derived. In detail, the performance results are expressed in terms of Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) 5G NR signal quality metric, measured on the Channel State Information (CSI) Reference Signal (RS) on a DownLink (DL) transmission from a gNB to a mobile UE. In order to derive an accurate simulator, we rely on an experimental testbed based on the use of a commercial wireless 5G embedded modem positioned in a moving vehicle and collecting geolocalized RSRP values.