Design and Performance Analysis of a New Soft Handoff Scheme for CDMA Cellular Systems

In this paper, a new soft handoff scheme for CDMA cellular systems is proposed and investigated. It is pointed out that some handoff calls unnecessarily occupy multiple channels with little contribution to the performance of handoffs in IS95/CDMA2000-based handoff schemes or systems. To alleviate performance degradation due to channel resource shortage during soft handoff, a new concept of channel convertible set (CCS), which contains several types of handoff calls that unnecessarily occupy extra channels by considering the relative mobility of the calls in the handoff area is introduced. A new scheme that reallocates those extra channels in the CCS to new handoff calls when there is no available free channel in the system is proposed. Furthermore, according to the variation of the CCS, the proposed scheme dynamically adjusts the number of guard channels reserved exclusively for handoff. Then, the feasibility and implementation issues of the proposed scheme are discussed. To evaluate and compare performance indexes of different soft handoff schemes, continuous-time Markov chain models are constructed. Automated generation and solution of the underlying Markov chains are facilitated by stochastic reward net models, which are specified and solved by stochastic Petri net package. Numerical results show that this scheme can significantly decrease both the number of dropped handoff calls and the number of blocked calls without degrading the quality of communication service and the soft handoff process.     

Soft handoff algorithm with variable thresholds in CDMA cellularsystems

Traffic nonuniformity degrades the performance of CDMA cellular systems. The authors present a new algorithm called the variable threshold soft handoff (VTSH) which reduces the performance degradation due to traffic nonuniformity in CDMA cellular systems. Unlike the conventional fixed handoff thresholds, the proposed algorithm allows the handoff thresholds (T ADD and T DROP) to vary dynamically according to the traffic density of each cell. This algorithm has been implemented by means of computer simulation and the results show that VTSH improves the overall CDMA system performance in terms of outage probability. The VTSH algorithm can easily be applied to CDMA cellular systems without any modification     

Performance analysis of soft handoff in CDMA cellular networks

The code-division multiple-access (CDMA) scheme has been considered as one possible choice of the future standards for cellular networks because of its various advantages. Since there can be only one carrier frequency being used in CDMA systems, a handoff scheme with diversity, a so-called “soft handoff”, was proposed for higher communication quality and capacity. A mathematical model is developed to analyze the soft handoff process. Markov's concept is applied to describe the system's steady state statistical behavior. System performance such as blocking probability, handoff refused probability, and channel efficiency are also determined. It is concluded that the larger the area the soft handoff region is, the better users in the cellular network will feel     

A call admission control scheme for packet data in CDMA cellular communications

In wireless cellular communication systems, call admission control (CAC) is to ensure satisfactory services for mobile users and maximize the utilization of the limited radio spectrum. In this paper, we propose a new CAC scheme for a code division multiple access (CDMA) wireless cellular network supporting heterogeneous self-similar data traffic. In addition to ensuring transmission accuracy at the bit level, the CAC scheme guarantees service requirements at both the call level and the packet level. The grade of service (GoS) at the call level and the quality of service (QoS) at the packet level are evaluated using the handoff call dropping probability and the packet transmission delay, respectively. The effective bandwidth approach for data traffic is applied to guarantee QoS requirements. Handoff probability and cell overload probability are derived via the traffic aggregation method. The two probabilities are used to determine the handoff call dropping probability, and the GoS requirement can be guaranteed on a per call basis. Numerical analysis and computer simulation results demonstrate that the proposed CAC scheme can meet both QoS and GoS requirements and achieve efficient resource utilization.     

Impact of Mobility on CDMA Call Admission Control

Interference is the key parameter in a code-division multiple access (CDMA) network. As users move around, the interference will flow with the movement. The objective of this paper is to study the impact of the moving interference (mobility) on systems' performance and design parameters. In this paper, we develop a detailed CDMA interference model with soft handoff, power-control errors, and shadowing effect. We combine this interference model with a Markov model to study the performance of CDMA systems under various mobility and traffic conditions. We also present a call admission control (CAC) scheme that sets aside some interference cushion for handling mobility and compare this scheme with other CAC schemes in terms of the effectiveness of mitigating the negative impact of mobility on system capacity     

Performance Analysis of an Improved Common Radio Resource Management Algorithm Based on Load Balance and Service Characteristics

In order to provide users with satisfactory quality of service and reduce service cost as much as possible, a key issue is how to manage radio resources reasonably and effectively in heterogeneous wireless networks (HWNs). Based on load balance and service characteristics, a common radio resource management (CRRM) algorithm for HWNs consisting of CDMA2000 and IEEE802.11 is proposed. The proposed algorithm selects appropriate access and handoff networks for new and handoff calls respectively, according to users’ mobility characteristic, location information, service type and network load. The performance of the proposed algorithm is analyzed based on a three-dimensional Markov chain model. Based on the HWNs model and handoff rate analysis, the model’s parameters are determined. In order to resolve the steady-state distribution of the three-dimensional Markov model, successive over-relaxation iteration method is adopted to work out steady state equations. According to the steady state probabilities of the Markov model, the closed formulas of HWNs performance metrics are given to evaluate the proposed CRRM algorithm, e.g. call blocking probability, handoff blocking probability, throughput, and service cost. For the purpose of illustrating advantages of the proposed algorithm, two other CRRM algorithms are employed for comparison. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can effectively reduce call blocking probability, and improve HWNs throughput.     

一种新的CDMA软切换算法及其对软切换性能的改善

定义了残余容损比(RCLR)的概念,提出了一种新的基于最大RCLR的无线移动CDMA小区系统的软切换判决算法,称之为RCLR算法。区别通常的最小路径损耗(MPOL)算法,RCLR算法不仅考虑了呼叫业务的路径损耗,而且兼顾了小区负载平衡。最后,通过分别在单层小区系统和分层小区系统中进行仿真,比较了RCLR算法和MPOL算法的软切换性能,仿真结果表明RCLR算法显著地改善了呼叫业务的中断概率和分层小区系统的层间溢出概率,减少了软切换次数。     

Call admission control in wideband CDMA cellular networks by using fuzzy logic

In this paper, a novel call admission control (CAC) scheme using fuzzy logic is proposed for the reverse link transmission in wideband code division multiple access (CDMA) cellular communications. The fuzzy CAC scheme first estimates the effective bandwidths of the call request from a mobile station (MS) and its mobility information, then makes a decision to accept or reject the connection request based on the estimation and system resource availability. Numerical results are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed fuzzy CAC scheme in terms of new call blocking probability/handoff call dropping probability, outage probability, and resource utilization.     

Performance analysis of channel-borrowing handoff scheme based onuser mobility in CDMA cellular systems

Code-division multiple-access (CDMA) cellular systems use soft handoff. Although the capacity of CDMA systems is interference-limited in nature, channel shortages may occur because soft handoff uses several channels simultaneously. To cope with this problem, we propose an improved handoff method that borrows channels from stationary calls participating in soft handoff and allocates the borrowed channels to handoff requests by moving calls when a channel shortage occurs. Borrowing from stationary calls is possible because these calls do not undergo fast-fading and do not require receiver diversity. The proposed method is designed to avoid increased interference resulting from channel borrowing. The proposed channel-burrowing handoff scheme is analyzed in a situation involving both moving and stationary calls. A comparison is made between the performances of the typical IS-95-based handoff scheme and the proposed scheme. Numerical results show that the proposed scheme is better than the IS-95 scheme in view of the handoff refused probability, the handoff queuing delay, and total interference     

Sensitivity analysis of handoff algorithms on CDMA forward link

We analyze the performance of different handoff algorithms on the forward link or downlink of a code-division multiple-access (CDMA) cellular system. Unlike the reverse link, soft handoff on the forward link requires additional resources such as CDMA codes and transmit power and also causes additional interference. If handoff requests can be processed and completed instantaneously, transmission from the base station with the best link to the user would achieve a significant fraction of the macrodiversity gain without utilizing additional resources. However, in practical systems, there is a nonzero handoff completion delay and soft handoff provides the required robustness to delays, although it comes at the expense of additional network resources. Thus, there is a tradeoff between the extent of soft handoff required and the handoff execution delay. We compare the performance of hard and soft handoff schemes and study their sensitivity to the delay in the execution of the handoff. Outage probability and the total average power required are used as performance metrics. We present an analytical framework to study this tradeoff and also discuss simulation results with field data. The results provide insights on the conditions under which soft handoff can be eliminated and on the effect of relevant handoff thresholds on the performance.     

Call admission control for CDMA mobile communications systems supporting multimedia services

The call admission control (CAC) belongs to the category of resource management. Since the radio spectrum is very scarce resource, CAC is one of the most important engineering issues for mobile communications. In this paper, we propose a CAC scheme for direct sequence code-division multiple-access cellular systems supporting mobile multimedia communications services. There are multiple call classes in multimedia services and the required signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) varies with call classes. Call admission decision in the proposed scheme is based on SIR measurement. We take account of the traffic asymmetry between uplink and downlink, which is the most important characteristic of multimedia traffic. In addition, the proposed scheme guarantees the priority of handoff call requests over new call requests. We evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme using Markov analysis. The performance measures which we focus on are the system throughput and the blocking probabilities of handoff calls and new calls. The outage probability of a call in progress is also calculated, which is the probability that the measured bit energy-to-noise density ratio of the call is smaller than the required value for maintaining adequate transmission quality. We present some numerical examples with practically meaningful parameter values and, as a result, show that the proposed CAC scheme can operate well in the mobile multimedia systems such as the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000) systems.     

Design and Analysis of a Channel Assignment Scheme for CDMA/TDMA Mobile Networks

In this paper, a channel assignment scheme is proposed for use in CDMA/TDMA mobile networks carrying voice and data traffic. In each cell, three types of calls are assumed to compete for access to the limited number of available channels by the cell: new voice calls, handoff voice calls, and data calls. The scheme uses the movable boundary concept in both the code and time domains in order to guarantee the quality of service (QoS) requirements of each type. A traditional Markov analysis method is employed to evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme. Measures, namely, the new call blocking probability, the handoff call forced termination probability, the data call loss probability, the expected number of handoff and the handoff link maintenance probability are obtained from the analysis. The numerical results, which are validated by simulation, indicate that the scheme helps meet the QoS requirements of the different call types.     

Characterization of soft handoff in CDMA systems

Many analytical approaches have been proposed for handoff analysis based on hard handoff in mobile communication systems. In code-division multiple-access (CDMA) systems with soft handoff, mobile stations (MSs) within a soft handoff region (SR) use multiple radio channels and receive their signals from multiple base stations (BSs) simultaneously. Therefore, the SRs should be considered for handoff analysis in CDMA systems. An analytical model for soft handoff in CDMA systems is developed by introducing an overlap region between adjacent cells and the handoff call attempt rate and the channel holding times are derived. Applying these results to a nonprioritized CDMA system, the effects of soft handoff and the mean cell residual time are investigated and compared with hard handoff     

Reverse link performance of wireless local loop CDMA networks

We study the effect of directional subscriber antennas on the reverse link performance of a power-controlled code-division multiple access (CDMA) network in wireless local loop deployments. We investigate the capacity gain that is attained in wireless local loop (WLL) CDMA over mobile cellular systems and its variation as a function of the channel statistics. We also determine the overhead that soft handoff and directional subscriber antennas impose on the WLL system capacity     

Joint connection-level and packet-level quality-of-service support for VBR traffic in wireless multimedia networks

In this paper, we investigate call admission control (CAC) schemes that can jointly provide connection-level quality-of-service (QoS) (in terms of the new call blocking probability and the handoff dropping probability) and packet-level QoS (in terms of the packet loss probability) for wireless multimedia networks. Stationary CAC schemes are proposed as the results of the solution to constrained optimization problems. A dynamic CAC scheme that can be adapted to varied and varying traffic conditions dynamically is also proposed. The proposed CAC schemes are computationally efficient and easy to implement, thus being suitable for real-time system deployment. Simulation results have demonstrated that the proposed dynamic CAC scheme achieves better performance when applied to realistic traffic conditions found in wireless multimedia networks.     

基于信道借用和信号预测的切换方法

随着业务需求的日益增长,蜂窝也越变越小,移动蜂窝通信环境中的切换成为日益重要的问题。在CDMA蜂窝系统中使用软切换,为了解决切换时的信道短缺问题,提出了许多解决方法。该文中提出了称为基于信道借用和信号预测的切换算法。当切换请求到达蜂窝时,如果没有空闲信道,就将从参与软切换的静止呼叫借用一信道,并将借用的信道分配给移动呼叫的切换请求.如果没有信道可借用,就将切换请求放入队列中,使用信号预测的方法来确定队列中的优先级。并将此切换方式的性能与其它切换方式进行了比较。     

Integrated call control in a CDMA cellular system

Soft handoff is an essential component of code-division multiple-access (CDMA) digital mobile communication systems. While soft handoff has some advantages of system capacity and communication quality, it also has some disadvantages arising from the excessive use of channel resources. In this study, we propose a new control policy to alleviate effectively this excessive use of channel resources. For CDMA cellular mobile systems consisting of homogeneous cells, a variety of traffic parameters are estimated by the detailed traffic analysis, based on which a Markovian queueing model is developed to analyze the performance of the proposed call control policy. With a well-known performance objective, a mathematical problem of finding optimal call control parameters is proposed, along with its solution method     

Adaptive channel reservation for call admission control to support prioritized soft handoff calls in a cellular CDMA system

This paper proposes a prioritized call admission control (CAC) model to support soft handoff calls with quality of service (QoS) assurances for both the uplink and downlink connections in a CDMA system. CAC is formulated as a combinatorial optimization problem in which the problem objective is to minimize the handoff forced termination rate. The model, which is based on the adaptive channel reservation (ACR) scheme for prioritized calls, adapts to changes in handoff traffic where the associated parameters (reserved channels, and new and handoff call arrival rates) can be varied. To solve the optimization model, iteration-based Lagrangean relaxation is applied by allocating a time budget. We express our achievements in terms of the problem formulation and performance improvement. Computational experiments demonstrate that the proposed ACR scheme outperforms other approaches when there are fewer rather than more channels, and it reduces the handoff call blocking rate more efficiently when the handoff traffic is heavily loaded. Moreover, the model can be adapted to any kind of reservation service.     

Call admission control for mobile multimedia communications withtraffic asymmetry between uplink and downlink

The call admission control (CAC) for mobile communications is one of the most important engineering issues since it belongs to the category of resource management and the radio spectrum is a very scarce resource. In future mobile cellular systems, the CAC scheme should be efficient for multimedia services as well as for voice services. This paper proposes an advanced CAC scheme for mobile multimedia communications. A characteristic of the proposed scheme is that it takes account of the traffic (load) asymmetry between uplink and downlink in mobile multimedia environments, we evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme using Markov analysis. The performance measures on which we focus are the utilization of resources and the blocking probabilities of handoff calls and new calls. We present some numerical examples with practically meaningful parameter values. As a result, we show that the proposed CAC scheme can be a good choice for mobile multimedia systems such as the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 systems     

Locally optimal soft handoff algorithms

The design of soft handoff algorithms for cellular radio systems is considered. The design problem is posed as a tradeoff between three metrics: the rate of handoffs, the mean size of the active set, and the link quality. It is argued that the algorithm that optimizes the tradeoff among these metrics is impractical. Hence, a locally optimal (LO) handoff algorithm is derived as a practical approximation to the optimal handoff algorithm. The LO algorithm is shown to yield a significantly better tradeoff than the static threshold handoff algorithm used in second-generation code-division multiple-access (CDMA) systems. It is also shown that the dynamic threshold algorithm, which is an ad hoc algorithm proposed for third-generation CDMA systems, achieves nearly the same performance as the LO algorithm. Thus, an analytical justification is developed for the dynamic threshold algorithm. Further, the handoff algorithm design is separated into independent design problems on the forward and reverse links. The forward link LO algorithm is shown to be computationally intensive but is also shown to be closely approximated by the simpler reverse link LO algorithm.