Performance comparison of fractional guard channel policies in mobile cellular networks

In this paper, recursive formulas to calculate the new call blocking and handoff failure probabilities for fractional guard channel (FGC) policies in cellular networks are derived. Since the limited fractional guard channel (LFGC), the uniform fractional guard channel (UFGC), the guard channel (GC), and the non-prioritization schemes (NPS) are particular cases of the FGC policies; the recursive formulas for the blocking probabilities of these schemes are implicitly obtained as well. The optimal performance of the GC, LFGC, and UFGC strategies is compared in terms of the maximum system capacity for different mobility conditions. It is observed that as mobility increases the system capacity decreases. Results show that the relative capacity gain of the different schemes depends on the value of the mean cell dwell time relative to the mean service time. It is shown that LFGC overcome the GC, UFGC, and NPS strategies for any mobility condition and can achieve as much as 3% capacity gain relative to GC, 10% relative to UFGC, and 12% relative to NPS.