The Effect of Handoff Dwell Time on the Mobile Network Performance

In this paper, we have studied the impact of the handoff dwell time (HDT) on the channel holding time (CHT) modeling and examined how it affects the mobile network performance evaluation. Realistic mobility model is constructed that includes the effect of HDT and we derive the important relationship between the critical parameters such as cell residence time (CRT), call holding time, CHT and HDT. Queueing priority scheme utilizing the HDT is applied to evaluate the HDT effect on performance indices in terms of the new call and handoff call blocking probabilities. It is observed that the relative error between the realistic new call blocking probability and conventional one can reach 70% and the conventional handoff blocking probability can even double the realistic one under the same specific practical condition. Next, we compare the new call and handoff call blocking probabilities when exponential handoff dwell time distribution is replaced by truncated Gaussian distribution with both the same mean and standard deviation in the discrete event simulation. A considerable gap between the handoff call blocking probabilities is shown, which indicates that the performance indices are sensitive to the handoff dwell time distribution.