Minimizing cellular handover failures without channel utilization loss

Abstract

In cellular systems, a primary goal is the reduction of handover failures in the system. Channel allocation policies that address this by setting aside guard channels for the exclusive use of handover requests suffer from a lower utilization of the scarce channel resources. We define a class of non-reserving policies that efficiently utilize the channels. Within this class, we identify a most critical first policy that is optimal with respect to handover failure probability. Moreover, this policy is shown to have the best channel utilization in its class as well. The proofs of optimality are accompanied by the description of a technique to realize the policy in practice. Simulation results that demonstrate its improvement over previous policies are presented as well.