A policy-based handover mechanism between femtocell and macrocell for LTE based networks

The femtocell networks, which use home base station and existing xDSL or other cable line as backhaul connectivity can fulfill the upcoming demand of high data rate for wireless communication system as well as extend the coverage area. Hence the modified handover procedure for existing networks is needed to support the macrocell/femtocell integrated network. Specially, the handover from macrocell to femtocell is quite complicated due to the large number of femtocells in the coverage area of macrocell and the characteristics of the femtocell. In view of the consideration, we propose a handover mechanism based on the decision made by the entity named HeNB Policy Function (HeNB PF). HeNB PF takes the user type, access mode of HeNB and its current load into consideration to make the optimal decision about the target femtocell. We will give the handover signaling flow as well as the decision rules in this article.