Automated handover optimization mechanism for LTE femtocells

The introduction of femtocells results in more frequent initiation of handover procedure, which leads to a huge amount of signaling overhead in the network. For indoor deployed femtocells, most of the frequent handovers are initiated in some special areas where the subscribers´ mobility characteristic is special, such as frequently step in and out of the femtcell coverage at a balcony. While in general areas, the mobility of subscribers seldom results in frequent handovers. In this paper, an automated handover optimization mechanism is proposed for femtocells in LTE. The proposed mechanism could differentiate the special areas and general areas by dint of an ACO (ant colony optimization) algorithm, and then configures different HM (hysteresis margin) for different areas in the same femtocell coverage. Simulation results indicate that significant reduction of the handover number is achieved and have no negative impact on the network performance.