HANDOFF

STRATEGIES
Outline..

 Handoff
 Handoff strategies
 Hand off decision
 Dwell time
 Prioritizing
 Queuing
 HAND OFF

“When a mobile moves into a different cell while a

conversation is in progress, MSC transfers the call to a
new channel belonging to the new base station”
Handoff depends on:
 Cell size
 Boundary length
 Signal strength
 Fading
 Reflection and refraction
 Man made noise
 Handoff can be initiated either by the
BS or the MS.
 It could be due to:
1. The radio link
2. Network management
3. Service issues
The radio link -primarily due to the mobility of
MS and depends on :
 No. of MSs that are in the cell
 No. of MSs that have left the cell
 No. of calls generated in the cell
 No. of calls transferred to the cell from
neighbouring cell by the handoff
 No. and duration of calls terminated in the cell
 No. of calls handed off to the neighbouring cells
 Cell dwell time
 Network management may cause
handoff if there is a drastic imbalance
of traffic over adjacent cells.

 Service related handoff is due to

degradation of quality of service (QoS)
and handoff could be invoked when
such a situation is detected.
 Necessity for handoff is defined by:
 Signal strength
 Signal phase
 Combination of the above two
 Bit error rate (BER)
 Distance
Mobile Switching Center needs to:
 Identify the new base station
 Allocate new Voice and Control
channels associated with the new base
station
Desired behavior:
 Prioritize Handoff requests over call initiation request
 Successful transfer of call
 Hand off should be as infrequent as possible
 Hand off should be imperceptible to the users

Hand off Threshold Power Level

 System designers must specify an optimum signal level at
which to initiate handoff
 There is a minimum power level of the signal at BS for
acceptable voice quality. (-90 to –100 dBm).
 A slightly stronger level is used as a threshold at which
handoff is made so that the system has time to process hand
off.
Margin is given by Δ = Pr handoff – Pr minimum usable
Margin Δ needs to be neither too small, nor too large
 Δ too small → too short time to perform handoff, The call may
be dropped due to weak signal condition

 Δ too large → unnecessary handoff which burden the MSC,

may occur.
…
HANDOFF STRATEGIES

Dropped Call Events:

 Dropped call event happen when there is an excessive

delay by the MSC in assigning the handoff or when
threshold is too small for handoff time in the system

 Excessive delays may occur during high traffic conditions

due to computational load on the MSC

 Also if no channels available on any of the nearby

stations (Forcing the MSC to wait until a channel in a
nearby cell becomes free)
 HANDOFF DECISION

 Drop in the measured signal level is not due to the

momentary fading and that the mobile is actually moving
away from the serving base station.

 Base station monitors the signal strength ensuring

necessary handoffs to be completed before call is
terminated due to poor signal level and also avoiding
unnecessary handoffs

 Length of time required for decision depend upon on speed

at which the vehicle is moving

 Handoff should be made quickly, for slope of short term

avg. received signal level in a given time interval is steep.
 DWELL TIME
The time over which a call may be maintained within a cell,
without handoff
 Vary greatly, depending upon
 the speed of the user
 Interference
 type of coverage

 Cells providing coverage for vehicular highway users, having

relatively constant speed travel along fixed path enjoy good radio
coverage

 The dwell time for a highway user is a random variable with

distribution highly concentrated about the mean dwell time

 For users in dense, cultured micro cell environments, there is

typically a large variations in dwell time about the mean.
 HANDOFF DECISION IN 1G
 In 1G analog cellular system signal strength
measurements are made by the base stations and
supervised by the MSC.

 Each base station constantly monitors the signal strength

of all of its reverse channel, determining relative position of
the mobile user w.r.t base station tower

 Locator receiver a spare receiver in base station is

used to scan and determine signal strengths of mobile
users in neighbouring cells requiring handoffs and reports
all the RSSI values to the MSC

 Based on locator receiver information MSC decides

whether Handoff is necessary or not
 HANDOFF DECISION IN 2G
 In 2G systems handoff decisions are mobile assisted

 Mobile Assisted Handoff (MAHO): Every mobile station

measures the received power from the surrounding base stations
and continually reports the result of these measurements to
serving base staion

 A handoff is initiated when the power received from the base

station of neighbouring cell begins to exceed the power received
from the current base station by certain level or for certain period
of time

 MAHO is much faster than a locator in 1G system, since

measurements are made by mobile (MSC not monitoring signal
strengths), suited for microcell environments
 INTERSYSTEM HANDOFF

During the course of a call if a mobile moves from one cellular system to
a different cellular system controlled by a different MSC an intersystem
handoff is necessry.

 Necessity :
 when a mobile signal becomes weak in a give cell

 MSC cannot find another cell within its system to which can it transfer the
call in progress
 Issues:
 A local call may become a long distance call as
the mobile user moves out of home system and
becomes a roamer in the neighbouring system.
 compatibility between the two MSC must be
determined before implementing intersystem
handoff.
 Different policies and methods for managing handoff
requests

 Some handle handoff requests in same way as they

handle originating calls

 From user point of view call abruptly terminated

while in middle of conversation is more annoying
than being blocked on call attempt
MANAGING HANDOFFS

1. Prioritizing Handoffs
2. Queuing of Handoffs
.
Prioritizing Handoffs :
To improve QoS various methods have been devised to
prioritize handoff.
Guard Channel Concept

 A fraction of the total available channel in a cell is

reserved exclusively for handoff requests from ongoing
calls which may be handed off into the cell

 Disadvantage of reducing the total carried traffic, as

fewer channels are allocated to originating calls

 However it offers efficient spectrum utilization using

dynamic channel assignment strategies
Queuing of Handoffs
 Decrease the probability of forced termination of a call due
to lack of available channels

 Queuing is possible due to the fact that there is finite time

interval between the time the received signal level drops
below the handoff threshold and the time the call is
terminated due to insufficient signal level.

 Delay time and size of the queue is determined from the

traffic pattern of particular service area

 Does not guarantee a zero probability of forced

termination, since large delays may cause the received
signal level to drop below minimum level required.
PRACTICAL HANDOFF CONSIDERATIONS

1.Wide range of mobile velocities

 High speed vehicles pass through the coverage region of

a cell within a matter of seconds, whereas pedestrians
user may never need a handoff during a call

 The addition of microcells to provide capacity, the MSC

will be quickly burdened if high speed users are
constantly passed between very small cells
2.Umbrella Cell Approach

 Provide the large area coverage to high speed users

while providing the small coverage area to users
travelling at low speeds.
 Minimize handoff for high speed users and provides
additional microcell channels for pedestrian users

 The speed of each user may be estimated by the base

station or MSC by evaluating how rapidly the short term
average signal strength on RVC changes over time.
3.Cell Dragging (in microcell systems)
 Results from pedestrian users that provide a very strong signal
to the base station due to LOS radio path between the
subscriber and the base station

 Average signal strength does not decay rapidly, due to slow

speed

 Even when the user has travelled well beyond the designed
range of the cell, the received signal may be above handoff
threshold, handoff may not be made

 Creates a potential interference and traffic management

problems since the user has meanwhile travelled deep into the
neighbouring cell.

 Handoff threshold and radio coverage parameters must be

adjusted carefully.
4.Handoff decisions other than signal
strength
 The co-channel and adjacent channel interference levels
may be measured at the base station or mobile station.

 Information may be used with the conventional signal

strength data to provide a multidimensional algorithm for
determining when handoff is needed.
 EXAMPLES
• Handoff for first generation analog cellular systems
– 10 secs handoff time
– ∆ is in the order of 6 dB to 12 dB
• Handoff for second generation digital cellular systems, e.g., GSM
– 1 to 2 seconds handoff time
– mobile assists handoff
– ∆ is in the order of 0 dB to 6 dB
– Handoff decisions based on signal strength, co-channel
interference, and adjacent channel interference.
• IS-95 CDMA spread spectrum cellular system
– Mobiles share the channel in every cell.
– No physical change of channel during handoff
– MSC decides the base station with the best receiving signal as the
service station
HANDOFF MANAGEMENT ISSUES

Three issues for handoff management

 Handoff Detection
 Channel Assignment
 Radio Link Transfer
Metrics for Handoff
Detection

 Word Error Indicator (WEI)

 Received Signal Strength Indication
(RSSI) (dB)
 Quality Indicator (QI) {SNR or S/I}
STRATEGIES FOR HANDOFF
DETECTION

 Mobile Controlled Handoff (MCHO)

 Network Controlled Handoff (NCHO)

 Mobile Assisted Handoff (MAHO)

 MCHO
MS Quality maintenance processing

yes
Measurement
Process

no Select new
Link Quality channel or time Execute ALT or
Acceptable? slot TST
NCHO

 BS supervise quality of current connections by

making RSSI measurements

 MSC commands surrounding BSs to make

measurements of these links occasionally.

 Based on these measurements MSC makes

decision when and where to effect the handoff.
 MAHO
 In 2G, handoff decisions are mobile assisted
 Each mobile measures RSSI of all surrounding BS
 Reports to serving BS
 Handoff is initiated if power of serving BS is lesser
than nearby BS by a certain level or for a certain
period of time
 Enables calls to be handed over between Base
Stations at much faster rate than in 1G
 MSC no longer constantly monitors RSSI.
 More suitable for microcellular where HO is frequent

34
Source:
1. Wireless Communications Principles
and practice by T. S. Rappaport,
Pearson Education