Performance Enhancement of Cellular Network Using Adaptive Soft Handover Algorithm

Mobility management is the most important feature of a wireless cellular communication system. Continuation of an active call is one of the most important quality measurements in the cellular systems. Handover makes it possible for a user to travel between various networks or cells while having a seamless connection. This paper shows that, performance of cellular network can be increased with proposed adaptive soft handoff algorithm, which dynamically calculates the Soft handover margin based on the received signal strength and distance. Performance is evaluated in terms of the performance metrics active set update rate, active set size, soft handover region and probability of outage. Simulation results show that soft handover algorithm gives better performance with adaptive soft handoff margin compared to that of fixed soft handover margin in varied propagation conditions.