Intelligent Handover Scheme for Drone Using Fuzzy Inference Systems

Many network technologies, including cellular, Wifi, and WiMAX, coexist in wireless networks. With the increasing demand on mobility-based network services on account of the popularity of smart devices, users expect network environments in which they can readily access the Internet at any time and place. An effective handover decision is necessary to provide users with continued services while they are mobile. Existing studies on handover have strived to improve the mobility of the object moving and communicating on the ground. However, a traditional handover decision is not suitable for a drone moving and communicating in 3-D space. Therefore, in this paper, parameters that represent the characteristics of drones communicating within 3-D space are defined, including speed limit and coverage. Using these parameters as input variables, a fuzzy inference method for the handover decision is proposed. A fuzzy inference system is composed of four steps. First, terminal-related information is analyzed to select the factors that can affect the drone handover decision. Second, the input data values are converted into membership functions. Third, the reasoning rules for the handover decision are designed and applied. Finally, the handover is decided by considering the current information of the drone. The computation of the number of handover decisions has shown that considering the terminal-related parameters and the network-related parameters has a positive effect on the handover decision.