On the feasibility of handover over WiFi backhaul in LTE-based aerial-terrestrial networks

In this paper, we investigate scenarios where 4G LTE base stations are mounted on balloons raised in the sky for the provision of cellular connectivity and coverage within an area of few kilometers (e.g., scenarios for emergency communications). In this context, the link between the base stations need to be completed using wireless technologies, thus impacting the performance of the X2 logical interface. We propose the adoption of a wireless backhaul link based on WiFi technology. The main contributions of this paper consist in: modeling the LTE handover over a WiFi link; analyzing the binary exponential backoff with a hands-on one-dimensional Markov Chain including a finite number of packet retries as well as accounting for packets corruption due to Rice fading; and showing the average handover latency and handover preparation failure probability, thus proving that WiFi can meet LTE handover constraints in the majority of the investigated cases.