Hybrid predictive handover in mobile networks

This paper presents a hybrid handover method that utilizes mobile location information coupled with signal quality for optimizing the signaling load due to the mobility of the mobile handset in future mobile networks. Handover control is an essential component of radio resource management that imposes considerable signaling load on the network. The amount of undesirable signaling load depends directly on the speed of the handset. In this paper, we show that location information can bring great benefit when used to assist the handover mechanism. The paper describes how the location information can be extracted and exploited when making the handover decision. The performance of the proposed handover method in terms of the signalling cost due to the switching and routing of the connections involved in the handover process is evaluated through the simulation results.