Novel Handover Optimization with a Coordinated Contiguous Carrier Aggregation Deployment Scenario in LTE-Advanced Systems

Abstract

The carrier aggregation (CA) technique and Handover Parameters Optimization (HPO) function have been introduced in LTE-Advanced systems to enhance system performance in terms of throughput, coverage area, and connection stability and to reduce management complexity. Although LTE-Advanced has benefited from the CA technique, the low spectral efficiency and high ping-pong effect with high outage probabilities in conventional Carrier Aggregation Deployment Scenarios (CADSs) have become major challenges for cell edge User Equipment (UE). Also, the existing HPO algorithms are not optimal for selecting the appropriate handover control parameters (HCPs). This paper proposes two solutions by deploying a Coordinated Contiguous-CADS (CC-CADS) and a Novel Handover Parameters Optimization algorithm that is based on the Weight Performance Function (NHPO-WPF). The CC-CADS uses two contiguous component carriers (CCs) that have two different beam directions. The NHPO-WPF automatically adjusts the HCPs based on the Weight Performance Function (WPF), which is evaluated as a function of the Signal-to-Interference Noise Ratio (SINR), cell load, and UE’s velocity. Simulation results show that the CC-CADS and the NHPO-WPF algorithm provide significant enhancements in system performance over that of conventional CADSs and HPO algorithms from the literature, respectively. The integration of both solutions achieves even better performance than scenarios in which each solution is considered independently.