A Beamforming-Based Enhanced Handover Scheme with Adaptive Threshold for 5G Heterogeneous Networks

Abstract

In order to tackle the explosive growth of data traffic and the number of terminals, 5G heterogeneous network (HetNet) has become an important evolution direction of 5G networking architecture. Densely deployed micro base stations (gNBs) in 5G HetNets will dramatically increase the handover frequency of user equipment (UE), resulting in more handover failures, and seriously reducing the user experience of mobile UE. Aiming at tackling this problem, this paper proposes a beam enhancement handover scheme with an adaptive threshold. Firstly, different beamforming gains are configured for the mobile UE in the overlapping area of two gNBs to improve the signal strength received by the UE at the edge of gNB coverage. Secondly, for mobile UE with different speeds, adaptive handover decision parameters are configured, and reference signal receiving strength (RSRP) as well as reference signal receiving quality (RSRQ) are used for joint handover decisions to achieve reliable handover. The simulation results verify that the proposed scheme can effectively improve the signal strength of the edge area, and the adaptive joint handover decision algorithm based on UE speed can also effectively improve the handover success probability.