Voice call handover mechanisms in next-generation 3GPP systems

The evolved 3GPP system is a hybrid mobile network architecture supporting several radio access technologies and several mobility mechanisms. In this article we briefly review the architecture and key components of this system, with particular emphasis on how it can support voice call mobility in several deployment scenarios. First, we present the so-called single-radio voice call continuity mechanisms that enable mid-call handover of VoIP calls from E-UTRAN access to the legacy UTRAN/GERAN or lxRTT access. Then we focus on deployment scenarios that do not support voice services on E-UTRAN and present the so-called fallback mechanisms that enable handover from E-UTRAN to UTRAN/GERAN or lxRTT at the beginning of a voice call. Finally, we address the application- layer voice call handover mechanisms enabled by the IP multimedia subsystem. Our conclusion is that the next generation of 3GPP systems are highly sophisticated mobile communication systems that support extended voice call mobility mechanisms, capable of addressing all commercial deployment needs.