A Cost Function Algorithm for Mobility Load Balancing in Long Term Evolution Networks

Abstract

Recently, different types of service demand by subscribers of Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) Network is continually on the increase and this necessitated the introduction of Self-Organizing Network (SON) functionalities in LTE systems. Load balancing is one of the major issues in self-optimization process of SON that needs adequate research attention due to high demand of scarce network resources, time-varying traffic and economy side consideration. To solve this issue, we proposed a low computational complexity and effective cost function solution to mitigate the problem of load imbalance in an LTE cellular network. Our solution aimed at balancing the network load fairly for optimized performance by automatically handing over cell edge users from an over-loaded cell to under-loaded cell using an estimated weighted value derived from SINR, cell’s response time for user’s service demand, the number of users in active mode and the number of connections of real time service class. We consider the cell with highest weighted value to be over-loaded and hence, load-shed some of its cell edge users to under-loaded neighbours by triggering a load balance handover process in the system. Performance evaluation of the proposed solution achieved a 98% in terms of network load distribution index with a few numbers of unsatisfied user.