Optimized and distributed data packet forwarding in LTE/LTE-A networks

Recently, a data packet forwarding scheme between evolved node Bs (eNBs) in long-term evolution (LTE)/LTE-advanced (LTE-A) networks has been proposed to reduce the signaling overhead and delay incurred in the data path switching scheme. However, the conventional data packet forwarding scheme suffers from the increased delay when the length of the data packet forwarding chain is inappropriately long. To attain the optimal handover performance in LTE/LTE-A networks, we propose an optimized and distributed data packet forwarding scheme where an optimal length of the forwarding chain is obtained by a Markov decision process (MDP). Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed scheme achieves the optimal and adaptive performance in diverse network environments.