Handover mechanism for device-to-device communication

Device-to-Device (D2D) communication is a proximity-based technique used by Long Term Evolution-Advanced (LTE-A) systems. When a ProSe-enabled UE in D2D communication moves across a cell boundary, seamless handover is expected. However, LTE-A does not specify D2D handover procedures, and the current LTE-A handover procedures cannot support the ProSe service continuity requirements [1]. Therefore, an efficient D2D handover mechanism is necessary to meet the requirements. In this paper, a D2D handover mechanism, which considers the signal quality of D2D pairs, is proposed. The proposed mechanism includes a Joint Handover procedure and a Half Handover procedure based on a D2D handover decision method. Simulation of Urban Mobility (SUMO) [2] is adopted for the mobility model and performance evaluation simulations. The properties of this mechanism satisfy the ProSe service continuity requirements while decreasing the D2D HO failure rate as well as reducing the amount of information exchanged between the source eNB and the target eNB.