A hybrid channel allocation algorithm with priority to handoff calls in mobile cellular networks

Abstract

This paper proposes and investigates a novel analytical model of a hybrid channel allocation algorithm within wireless cellular networks. Each cell of the network consists of a predesigned fixed number of channels and the network may approve the request for extra channels for both new and handoff calls if all predesigned channels are occupied. This approval depends on the types of new and handoff calls, as well as the number of approved additional channels in the cell. If a request is denied for the arriving new call, this call will be blocked and cleared from the system. However, if a request is denied for an arriving handoff call, this call will not be blocked immediately but rather put on hold in a buffer with finite space. The implication behind this is to give priority to handoff calls. For this proposed hybrid channel allocation scheme, we first obtain the stationary distribution of each cell when there are i calls connecting to the system and j calls holding on in the buffer. We then derive new and handoff call blocking probabilities, the average number of borrowed channels, and the average delay period of handoff calls. The numerical results show that the proposed hybrid algorithm is more efficient than other approaches, specifically, in comparison with methods without a borrowing capability for new calls and those without a reserved buffer priority for handoff calls. The idea and results presented in this paper are expected to provide guidelines for field data processing within current wireless and mobile network design and performance evaluation.