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Handoff Management
Handoff Management
4.1 Handoff
When a mobile user is engaged in conversion, the MS connected to a BS via a radio
link. If the mobile user moves to the coverage area of another BTS, the radio link to
the old BS is eventually disconnected and a radio link to the new BS should be
established to continue the conversion. This process is variously referred to as
automatic link transfer, handover, or handoff.
Hand off
Min the chance of reaching the boundary is 18%. Now we may debate whether
a handoff is needed or not. In rural areas, handoff may not be necessary.
However, commercial mobile units must meet certain requirements and handoff
s may be necessary at the at time
In intersystem handoff, the new and old BSs are connected to two different MSCs.
In the description that follows, we trace the intersystem handoff procedure IS-41,
where network –controlled handoff is assumed. Fig: shows the trunk connection
before and after the intersystem handoff. In this fig a communication mobile user
moves out of the BS served by MSC A and enters the area covered by MSC B.
Intersystem handoff requires the following steps:
1. MSC A requires MSC B to perform handoff measurements on the call in
progress. MSC B then selects a candidate BS, BS2, and interrogates it for signal
quality parameters on the call in progress. MSC B returns the signal quality
parameter values, along with other relevant information to MSC A.
2. MSC A checks if the MS has made too many handoffs recently (this to avoid,
for example numerous handoff between BS1 and BS2 where the MS is moving
within the overlapped area) or if intersystem trunks are not available. If so,
MSC A exits the procedure. Otherwise, MSC A asks MSC B to set up a voice
channel. Assuming that a vice channel is available in BS2, MSC B instructs
MSC A to start the radio link transfer.
3. MSC A sends the MS a handoff order. The MS synchronizes to BS2. After the
MS is connected to BS2, MSC B informs MSC A that the handoff is successful.
MSC A then connects the call path (trunk) to MSC B and completes the
handoff procedure.
In this handoff process, MSC A is referred to as the anchor MSC, and is always in
the path before and after the handoff as illustrated in the fig. this anchor approach is
used in all exiting mobile phone networks because the re-establishment of a new
call path between MS and the new MSC would require extra trunk release / setup
operation in PSTN which is not available or not cost effective.
The following approaches are used to make handoffs successful and to eliminate all
necessary handoff. Suppose that -100dbm is a threshold level at the cell boundary at
which a handoff would be taken. Given this scenario, we must set up a level higher
than -100dbm +∆ dbm and the received signal reaches this level a handoff request is
initiated. If the value of ∆ is fixed and large then time it takes to lower -100 dbm +∆
to -100dbm is longer. If ∆ is small, then there is not enough time for the call to
handoff at the site and many calls can be lost while they are handed off. Therefore ∆
should be varied according to the path loss slope of the received signal strength and
the level crossing rate of the signal strength.
Let the value of ∆ be 10 db in the example given in the preceding paragraph. This
would mean a level of -90db as the threshold level for requesting a handoff. Then
we can calculate the velocity V of the mobile unit based on the predicted level
crossing rate(LCR) at a -10 db level with respect to the root square mean level
which is at -90 dbm; thus
nλ (7.1)
V = (√2π) 0.27
nλ
Where n is the LCR counting positive slopes and is the wavelength in feet. Equation
(7.1) can be simplified as
Consider the following example. The mobile units are moving randomly and the
terrain counter is uneven. The received signal strength at the mobile unit
fluctuates up and down. If the mobile unit is whole for less than 5 s (a driven
distance of 140 m for 5s, assuming a vehicle speed of 100 km/h), the delay (in
handoff) can even circumvent the need for a handoff.
If the neighboring cells are busy, delayed handoff may take place. In principle,
when call traffic is heavy, the switching processor is loaded and thus a lower
number of handoffs would help the processor handle call processing more
adequately.
The advantage of having a two –handoff –level algorithm is that it makes the
handoff occur at the proper location and eliminates possible interference in the
system. Fig case 1, shows the area where the first level handoff occurs between
cell A and cell B. if we only use the second level handoff boundary of cell A,
the area of handoff is too close to cell B.
Measurements
Processor
Yes
No
Link-
quality
Select new
channel or Execute
Acceptabl
e? time slot ALT or TST
Ch aila
call arrival Blocked
Av
a n bl
ne e
l
Channel Ongoing Channel
Assigned Call released
blocked
Ch ail
rm nel
Av
al
Handoff al l
ai ne d
m
av an ve
call arrival or ne
la l
N h an ab l e
Ch eser
e
bl
C ai l
R
av
Fig 4.4: Queuing Priority schemes
The queuing priority scheme is based on the fact that adjacent cells in a
PCS network overlap. Thus, there is a considerable area where a call can
be handled by either BS of the adjacent cells, called the handoff area. The
time that an MS spends in the overlapped area is referred to as the
degradation interval.
Yes
Channel
Handoff Channel Ongoing
Availabl
call arrival e assigned Call
No
Channel
Insert the call Released
into the
waiting queue
New call
Channel
Released
Is a channel Yes Is the
available waiting
before call queue
expires? No empty
Yes
No
The flow chart of QPS handoff call channel assignment is shown in fig
7.5. The channel assignment for a QPS new call is the same as that for
NPS. If a channel in the new cell is available for the handoff, the handoff
actually occurs. If no channels is available after the MS moves out of the
handoff area –the degradation interval expires the call is forced to
terminate. In these schemes, when a channel is released, the BS first
checks if the waiting queue is empty. If not the released channel is
assigned to a handoff call in the queue. The next handoff to be served is
selected based on the queuing policy.
4.1.1 Implementation issues
To implement prioritizing handoff schemes a radio system must have a physical
channel that is a system signaling channel for the MS to request the link transfer
even when all traffic channel are in use. This channel should always be
available and therefore cannot be used as a traffic channel. Some PCSs radio
system already reserve a channel for other purposes such as system broadcast
channel, which can be shared by the handoff prioritizing procedure. For system
with conventional handoff procedures the reserved channel is not necessary
because the request is made through the network.
The QPS take advantage of the handoff area to buffer the handoff calls. The
implementation for the measurements based priority schemes is more complex
than that for the fifo schemes but the performance is almost identical. QPS
effectively reduce forced terminations at the expense of increasing new call
blocking
Several analytical and simulation models have been proposed to evaluate the
performance of the handoff channel assignment schemes. The results are
summarized here. RCS is easy to implement and it reduced the forced
termination probability more effectively than NPS. The new call blocking
Probability for RCS however larger than that of NPS.
To conclude the selection of a particular handoff and initial channel assignment
schemes is a trade –off between implementation complexity and performance. If
reducing forced termination is more import ant than reducing total call
implementation, then RCS, QPS, SRS are better than NPS. If implementation
cost is a major concern then RCS and NPS should be considered. To achieve the
best performance with a slight voice quality degradation SRS should be
selected, if BS density is high in a given PCS service area then queuing priority
schemes may be a good choice, because the overlapping coverage areas
between BSs will be large.