An experimental evaluation on handover performance of AeroMACS prototype

AeroMACS (Aeronautical Mobile Airport Communications System) is an aeronautical wireless communication standard which provides high-speed fix/mobile network on the airport surface. AeroMACS is expected to gain the safety and efficiency of the airport operations by allowing the stakeholders such as air navigation service providers, airline companies, and airport authorities to exchange massive data traffic. The authors have been contributed to the standardization activities by providing the evaluation result of the developed prototype. In this context, this paper reports a Hand-Over (HO) test conducted in Sendai airport. HO is an important function that allows Mobile Stations (MSs) to change their connecting Base Stations (BSs) hence essential for covering a large airport which requires multiple BSs. As results of the test, performance metrics such as latency, Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), Round Trip Time (RTT), and throughput are presented. The presented result will help the consideration of possible applications. In addition, the mitigation of RSSI fluctuation caused by multipath is discussed as a possible future improvement.