A QoE-Driven Traffic Steering Algorithm for LTE Networks

Due to the diversity of mobile services and raising user expectations, mobile network management has changed its focus from Quality of Service (QoS) to Quality of Experience (QoE). As a consequence, classical network optimization procedures must be updated accordingly. One of these procedures is traffic sharing, whose aim is to redistribute traffic among adjacent cells so as to provide an adequate QoE to subscribers. In this work, a novel QoE-driven traffic sharing algorithm based on mobility load balancing is proposed for LTE networks offering services of very different nature. Unlike previous approaches, where the aim was to balance some QoS indicator, the aim here is to equalize the QoE provided by all cells in the network. For this purpose, the handover margins between adjacent cells are tuned on a per-adjacency or per-service basis based on QoE measurements collected in the network management system. Method assessment is based on a dynamic system-level simulator implementing a realistic LTE scenario. Results show that the proposed QoE-driven traffic sharing algorithm alleviates QoE problems by equalizing user QoE throughout the scenario.