Effects of time-to-trigger parameter on handover performance in SON-based LTE systems

In this paper, we evaluate handover (HO) performance when we apply various time-to-trigger (TTT) methods in self-organizing network (SON)-based long term evolution (LTE) systems. Although TTT can mitigate the wasteful ping-pong HO effect, it also can cause undesirable radio link failure (RLF) due to delayed HO. The optimal HO timings that produce the lowest ping-pong rate within allowable RLF rate vary depending on user equipment (UE) speeds and neighboring cell configurations. To achieve efficient HO timings, we propose and investigate two methods: “adaptive” and “grouping.” In the “adaptive method,” we select the adaptive TTT value for each UE speed based on RLF rate of 2%. The “grouping method” classifies UE speeds into three ranges and assigns the proper TTT value to each range. To apply the LTE specification more effectively, we suggest the criteria of grouping, and propose the proper TTT value for each range. We consider HO in two neighboring cell configurations: from a macro cell to either a macro cell or a pico cell. Simulation results show that the HO performance of the “adaptive method” is greatly improved compared to that of applying fixed TTT values. The results also show that the performance of the “grouping method”, using proposed criteria and proper TTT values, is comparable to that of the “adaptive method”.