Handover Adaptation for Dynamic Load Balancing in 3GPP Long Term Evolution Systems

The long-Term Evolution (LTE) of the 3GPP (3 rd Generation Partnership Project) radio access network is in early stage of specification. Self-tuning and self-optimisation algorithms are currently studied with the aim of enriching the LTE standard. This paper investigates auto-tuning of LTE mobility algorithm. The auto-tuning is carried out by adapting handover parameters of each base station according to its radio load and the load of its adjacent cells. The auto-tuning alleviates cell congestion and balances the traffic and the load between cells by handing off mobiles close to the cell border from the congested cell to its neighbouring cells. Simulation results show that the autotuning process brings an important gain in both call admission rate and user throughput.