Mixed cell architecture and handover

Future personal communications and mobile radio systems will rely on a multi-cellular architecture to achieve high user capacity. In particular, the mixed cell architecture with macrocells overlaying microcells and indoor picocells appears promising. For such a system, handover techniques, band sharing strategies and ultimately the traffic performance are among the issues of utmost concern to third generation mobile system designers. The merits of a mixed cell architecture are examined. Handover strategies and procedures pertinent to a mixed cell system are reviewed together with highlights of their performance