Channel-aware optimised traffic shifting in LTE-Advanced relay networks

Traffic shifting is an efficient load balancing method to offload traffic from a hot-spot cell to neighbouring cells. This paper proposes a channel-aware optimised traffic shifting (COTS) scheme in LTE-Advanced relay networks. The COTS scheme employs a channel-aware assistant cell selection mechanism, which considers users´ channel condition, received from the relay station (RS) in neighbouring cells, to select assistant cells and address the weak assistant cell problem. The optimal traffic offloading algorithm analyses and calculates the shifted traffic from the hot-spot cell to its assistant cells. Simulation results show that the COTS scheme can select a small number of neighbouring cells as assistant cells to effectively offload users, and can efficiently reduce the call blocking probability as well as the call dropping probability.