Energy efficient handover algorithm for green radio networks

Abstract

The coverage area and the capacity of existing cellular network systems are not sufficient to meet the growing demand of high data rate for wireless communications. Heterogeneous Networks (HetNets) based on Long Term Evolution (LTE) can be a possible solution to enhance indoor coverage, deliver high bandwidths and off-load traffic from the macro base stations. However, this technology is still under development and several open issues have to be still investigated, such as interference coordination, power consumption, resources management and handover techniques. The aim of this work is to guarantee the reduction of power consumption using a new handover algorithm based on green policy. In addition, the proposed scheme guarantees the minimization of unnecessary handovers. The simulation campaigns have been conducted through the open-source Network Simulator 3 (NS-3). The preliminary results demonstrate that an efficient use of green approach improves the HetNETs performance in terms of power saving, energy efficiency and allow to reduces the number of unnecessary handovers. © 2014 IEEE.