Performance of hard handoff in 1xev-do rev. a systems

Abstract

1x Evolution-Data Optimized Revision A (1xEV-DO Rev. A) is a cellular communications standard that introduces key enhancements to the high data rate packet switched 1xEV-DO Release 0 standard. The enhancements are driven by the increasing demand on some applications that are delay sensitive and require symmetric data rates on the uplink and the downlink. Some examples of such applications being video telephony and voice over internet protocol (VoIP). The handoff operation is critical for delay sensitive applications because the mobile station (MS) is not supposed to lose service for long periods of time. Therefore seamless server selection is used in Rev. A systems. This research analyzes the performance of this handoff technique. A theoretical approach is presented to calculate the slot error probability (SEP). The approach enables evaluating the effects of filtering, hysteresis as well as the system introduced delay to handoff execution. Unlike previous works, the model presented in this thesis considers multiple base stations (BS) and accounts for correlation of shadow fading affecting different signal powers received from different BSs. The theoretical results are then verified over ranges of parameters of practical interest using simulations, which are also used to evaluate the packet error rate (PER) and the number of handoffs per second. Results show that the SEP gives a good indication about the PER. Results also show that when considering practical handoff delays, moderately large filter constants are more efficient than smaller ones.