Abstract

Heterogeneous deployment of access points is considered as a promising technique for improved network performance in 4G networks. While the heterogeneity of the network results in reduced cell sizes thereby improving network coverage, inter-cell handover process becomes more complex and frequent. Therefore, the different velocities and angles of movement of the mobile users leads to excessive scanning process between neighboring cells and poses an inherent delay in the handover decision. In this paper, we present a modified handover decision algorithm whereby pedestrians and motorcyclists access the same small cell thereby reducing the scanning for different target small cells. Signal to interference plus noise ratio was considered to mitigate neighbor cell interference and introducing mobility vector prediction to accurately execute handover process. Probability of unnecessary handover and network throughput were used as metrics.