Improving Vertical Handover Performance with PHY-Mode Recommendations Based on Localized Link State Measurements

Cooperation amongst heterogeneous mobile radio systems will be an indispensable feature of ´beyond 3G´. One key mechanism thereby serving as enabling technique for system integration will be the vertical handover (VHO) between different radio networks. Optimal handover control thereby is very important for which the present paper investigates the possibilities of handover optimization by providing mobile terminals with additional information about the target system. This includes prediction of the expected link quality and additional cell information such as the best modulation and coding scheme to use. Exploitation of available data will improve handover latency as well as overall system throughput.