Analysis and Selection of Key Parameters for Handoff Decision-Making in High-Mobility Edge Networks

Background: In edge integrated high-mobility networks, the information of candidate-cells is relevant to handoff decision making prior to handoff, and is important for connectivity and service continuity. Objective: Choose and evaluate relevant parameters for a handoff decision pathway and separate the parameters that are the inputs to the decision from the parameters that are the output of the QOS for the handoff. Ten categories of parameters were identified for relevance to decision-making, availability, redundancy and constraints in measurement. For example, an Excel spreadsheet containing 60 rows of candidate-cell data was generated, with 5 rows each for the different mobility speeds and 3 rows each for the different load conditions. Result: Reference signal received power was set and eligibility for coverage. The target signal to interference plus noise, predicted residence time, available capacity after load, and edge headroom and expected service delay were used with weights of 20%, 20%, 25%, 15% and 20% respectively in the ranking. The mean predicted residence time was lower at higher speeds, with 99.2 s at 10 km/h and 8.3 s at 120 km/h; the share of candidates that were eligible was lower at higher speeds, with 83% becoming eligible at 10 km/h and 58% at 120 km/h. A staged pathway is a pathway that uses stability control first, followed by the selection of targets. Conclusion: A parameter set for testing is identified using the framework and it is a compact and time appropriate set. The dataset, thresholds and weights are merely examples and the service quality improvement is not proven and should be validated with measured/simulated data.