Abstract

One of the most promising approaches to overcoming the uncertainty of millimeter wave (mm-wave) communications is to deploy dual-mode small base stations (SBSs) that integrate both mm-wave and microwave (μW) frequencies. In this paper, a novel approach to analyzing and managing mobility in joint mmwave-μW networks is proposed. The proposed approach leverages device-level caching along with the capabilities of dual-mode SBSs to minimize handover failures and reduce inter-frequency measurement energy consumption. First, fundamental results on the caching capabilities are derived for the proposed dual-mode network scenario. Second, the impact of caching on the number of handovers (HOs), energy consumption, and the average handover failure (HOF) is analyzed. Then, the proposed cache-enabled mobility management problem is formulated as a dynamic matching game between mobile user equipments (MUEs) and SBSs. The goal of this game is to find a distributed HO mechanism that, under network constraints on HOFs and limited cache sizes, allows each MUE to choose between: 1) executing an HO to a target SBS; 2) being connected to the macrocell base station; or 3) perform a transparent HO by using the cached content. To solve this dynamic matching problem, a novel algorithm is proposed and its convergence to a two-sided dynamically stable HO policy for MUEs and target SBSs is proved. Numerical results corroborate the analytical derivations and show that the proposed solution will significantly reduce both the HOF and energy consumption of MUEs, resulting in an enhanced mobility management for heterogeneous wireless networks with mm-wave capabilities.