A New Vertical Handover Prediction Method for Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

Long Term Evolution (LTE) is the fourth generation (4G) cellular network technology that provides improved performance that related to data rate, coverage and capacity compared to earlier cellular systems. The addition of many small cells in a heterogeneous network configuration provides a means to enhance capacity through extreme frequency reuse. The heterogeneous environment of different network technologies can provide high data rate and enhance multimedia services, but it is challenging to provide optimized handover (HO). In this paper, a new method is proposed to select the optimal network from available networks to which a UE may be handed over to achieve better QoS performance. The aggregation of multiple criteria for calculation of overall ranking of networks is obtained by Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) [1] and is combined with the history of previously visited cells and regression analysis of the Layer 1 (L1) and Layer 3 (L3) filtered Received Signal Strength (RSS) data for prediction of future values. The AHP is used to calculate the weights for the system attributes and to rank the available networks based on multiple criteria Multiple Attribute Decision Making (MADM). The sequence of visited cells is used in target network selection as it reduces frequent handover. The sequence of visited cells would be modeled as a Markov Chain. To assess RSS, beside L1, L3 filtering RSS prediction and smoothing is used to predict future signal samples to hasten the process of HO. RSS forecasting is used to predict handover necessity so as to reduce the handover delay. The results show that the number of handovers is reduced by up to 50% compared to the conventional AHP. The results also show that the threshold crossing rate and average duration of fades are reduced by 47% compared with the AHP. Handover delay is also reduced by up to 40 ms due to RSS forecasting.