CELLULAR AND

MOBILE
COMMUNICATION
Lecture 4
Handoff Strategies
Prioritizing Handoff
Practical Handoff considerations
Review of Quiz-3
•1.  Frequency reuse distance between the centers of two cells using
the same frequency (in different clusters) is determined by

2. Cluster size of the mobile radio cells are calculated using

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3. The process of selecting and allocating the frequency sub-bands for all of the cellular
base station within a system is called
• Hexagonal
• Cellular system
• Cluster
• Frequency reuse
• Cell

4. In a fixed channel assignment strategy, if all the assigned channels are occupied, the
call
• Call transferred to another cell
• Call blocked
• Call kept in Waiting mode
• Queued
• MSC allocates the new pair of channel

5. In a dynamic channel assignment strategy

•  Queued
• Each cell is assigned a predetermined set of frequencies
• The call is served by unused channels of the cell
• The call gets blocked if all the channels of the cell are occupied
• MSC allocates the new pair of channel

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 HANDOFF STRATEGIES

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Introduction to Handoff
• MS moves into a different cell with a call in
progress the MSC transfers the call to a new
channel from the new BS
• Two stages of handoff:
− Link quality evaluation and handoff initiation
− Allocation of radio and network resources
• High priority over call initiation request
• Handoff must be successful, infrequent and
imperceptible to the users

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Handoff basics
••  
Received power for handoff
• Minimum usable signal for acceptable voice quality at
base station receiver (it is usually between -90 dBm and
-100 dBm)
• The handoff threshold margin is

• If Δ is too large unnecessary handoff occurs

• If Δ is too small : time to complete handoff is insufficient,
call is lost due to weak signal
• Therefore Δ must be chosen carefully

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 Illustration !!
•  Let the is fixed as 30 dBm
• The value is – 70 dBm
• The is fixed at – 100 dBm (the range is – 90 dBm to – 100 dBm)
• Scenario 1: the received power from a mobile at base station is – 98
dBm then the value of = 28 dBm hence there is no handoff
• Scenario 2: If the mobile moves away from the current base station and
the received power from the mobile at base station is now – 120 dBm
• The value of = 50 dBm, which is greater than the threshold for handoff,
hence the handoff process is initiated

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Handoff scenario at
boundary
• Improper Handoff – dropped
call event
o Excessive delay by MSC in
assigning a handoff
o Δ is set too small for the handoff

• Proper Handoff
o handoff is made successfully
o new radio channels from BS2 are
assigned to the user

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• The BS monitors the RSS of MS over a period and finds a running
average – it should be optimized to avoid unnecessary handoff and
also for completion of handoff before a call is terminated from
current BS

• The time duration needed to decide if handoff is necessary depends

on the velocity of the vehicle
• Time over which the call is maintained within a cell – dwell time 
depends on propagation, interference, distance between BS and MS
and other time varying effect

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• In 1st generation analog cellular systems, BS measures signal
strength of reverse voice channels of the mobile users
• BS has locator receiver – controlled by MSCs
• They monitor the signal strength of users in neighbor cell appear
to be in need of Handoff and report to MSC
• MSC decides handoff is necessary or not

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• In the 2nd generation cellular systems, handoff are Mobile Assisted
Handoff (MAHO)
• MS measures received power from all BS and report to serving BS
• Handoff – if any BS exceeds the power level from current BS by certain
period of time
• This enables faster handoff than in 1st generation systems
• It is suitable for microcells where handoffs are more frequent

BS1 BS2

BS3

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• Intersystem handoff – if a mobile moves from one cellular system
to a different cellular system controlled by different MSC
• The mobile is allocated with channels in a cell from the other MSC
• It happens when the current MSC cannot find a cell within its
system for a handoff to be done
• Two different MSCs must be compatible to each for a successful
intersystem handoff

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 PRIORITIZING HANDOFFS

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Handoff Priorities
• Guard channel concept
o A fraction of total available channel is reserved for handoff request
o It has a disadvantage of reducing the total carried traffic
o However it is an efficient channel utilization in dynamic channel
assignment
• Queuing of handoff
o Decreases the probability of forced termination
o But reduces total carried traffic – requires a trade of
o Size of the queue > delay time for handoff
o If handoff delay is larger, i.e, if the signal strength is lower than the
minimum acceptable level for a long time – there is a forced termination
of call
o Size of queue must be fixed based on the traffic pattern

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 Take 5 minutes !!
Use the link below
https://forms.gle/MdcZVJMD4HBEeUbK9

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 PRACTICAL HANDOFF
CONSIDERATIONS

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Practical Handoff issues
• High speed vehicles need frequent handoffs but pedestrians may
never need a handoff
• MSC is burdened by high speed vehicles by frequent handoff
• By using different antenna heights and different power levels – it is
possible to provide large cell and small cells which are co-located at
same location – Umbrella cell approach

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 Umbrella cell offers large coverage to high speed users, small
coverage for users moving at lower speed
 Speed of user is estimated by BS or MSC by short term average
signal strength to partition the type of users
 If a high speed user is entering the base station and its velocity is
decreased, the base station decides to handle the user into the co-
located microcell without MSCs intervention
 Cell dragging : results from pedestrian with very strong signal to
the BS with LoS path
 As the user moves very slowly, the signal strength does not decay
rapidly
 Handoff may not be made even the user moves well beyond the
range of the cell
 Creates potential interference and traffic management problem
 To solve cell dragging: handoff threshold and radio coverage
parameters must be adjusted carefully

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• Breathing cell: CDMA cellular system has dynamic, time varying
coverage region, depends on no of users on CDMA radio channel
• In 1G cellular, handoff delay is 10sec, threshold is 6dB to 12dB
• In 2G cellular, GSM handoff delay is 1 or 2 sec, threshold is 0 dB to
6 dB it supports handling the high speed and low speed users and
avoiding the termination of call
• Hand off Types :
o Hard handoff: first disconnect from current BS and connect to new BS –
implemented in first generation wireless systems
o Soft handoff: the ability to select between the instantaneous received
signal from the different base stations – makes the connection to new BS
before disconnect from the current BS – implemented in second
generation onwards

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 Continued…

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