Performance Evaluation of Received Signal Strength Based Hard Handover for UTRAN LTE

This paper evaluates the hard handover performance for UTRAN LTE system. The focus is on the impact that received signal strength based hard handover algorithm have on the system performance measured in terms of number of handovers, time between two consecutive handovers and uplink SINR for a user about to experience a handover. A handover algorithm based on received signal strength measurements has been designed and implemented in a dynamic system level simulator and has been studied for different parameter sets in a 3GPP UTRAN LTE recommended simulation scenario. The results suggest that a downlink measurement bandwidth of 1.25 MHz and a handover margin of 2 dB to 6 dB are the parameters that will lead to the best compromise between average number of handovers and average uplink SINR for user speeds of 3 kmph to 120 kmph.