Resilient access via 3D hand-over

Backbone networks are well equipped with resilience mechanism for protection and restoration. However, in the access part often single-homing is used that is not resilient in case of a failure and therefore deteriorates the availability of services. This paper focuses onto the access part of the LTE 4G networks, particularly onto LTE small cells, and proposes two approaches to enhance the availability of services offered over LTE and other mobile and wireless networks. The first approach is to set up such front-haul / back-haul part of the network that is more resilient through an interleaved topology. The second approach is to use a kind of national roaming, to take over the traffic of the failed competing service provider on the basis of cooperation for a long term mutual benefit. Both methods are evaluated by optimization and simulation to show the improvement in availability.