Handover management in beyond 5G HetNet topologies with unbalanced user distribution

Abstract

The increase in user mobility and density in modern cellular networks increases the risk of overloading certain base stations in popular locations such as shopping malls or stadiums, which can result in connection loss for some users. To combat this, the traffic load of base stations should be kept as balanced as possible. In this paper, we propose an efficient load balancing-aware handover algorithm for highly dynamic beyond 5G heterogeneous networks by assigning mobile users to base stations with lighter loads when a handover is performed. The proposed algorithm is evaluated in a scenario with users having different levels of mobility, such as pedestrians and vehicles, and is shown to outperform the conventional handover mechanism, as well as another algorithm from the literature. As a secondary benefit, the overall energy consumption in the network is shown to be reduced with the proposed algorithm.