Dual Connectivity-Based Mobility Management and Data Split Mechanism in 4G/5G Cellular Networks

Abstract

The emerging 5G mobile network technology is envisioned to provide an efficient platform to interconnect machines, objects, and devices in addition to interconnecting people. Equipped with peak data rates, low latency, and massive capacity, 5G technology will empower new user experiences such as virtual reality and augmented reality and provide new service areas such as connecting massive IoT. Dual connectivity is an important feature where 5G systems are overlaid on the existing 4G core network. In this paper, we propose an MM (mobility management) algorithm to efficiently perform handovers between 4G and 5G RATs (radio access technologies). Our proposed MM algorithm utilizes the strength of DC (dual connectivity) for MM as DC inherently has lesser amount of handover interruption as compared to conventional hard handover. Our MM scheme suggests appropriate data split mechanism between 4G and 5G RATs based on application-specific strategy. We provide a framework based on probabilistic model checking that leverages DC and suggests strategy-based data split mechanism for a mobile user for a variety of market verticals. We model the system as MDP (Markov decision process) where a controller breaks all the nondeterminism in the MDP based on reward calculations. The proposed framework is implemented in a well known model checker and various scenarios are used to assess its applicability. INDEX TERMS 5G, 4G, mobility management, dual connectivity, split architecture, probabilistic model checking.

Heterogeneous wireless networks with mobile devices of multiple interfaces for simultaneous connections using Fuzzy System

“…In [ 9 ], the authors propose a mobility management algorithm to perform handovers efficiently between 4G and 5G radio access technologies. The proposed algorithm uses the dual connectivity (DC) technique, as DC has less handover interruption compared to conventional handover.…”

A Survey on 4G-5G Dual Connectivity: Road to 5G Implementation

“…Other than the interruption time, an important parameter to be considered when discussing mobility is the sudden dropping of the 5G-NR radio link to the device. Probability of sudden link deterioration is high for mmWave coverage and cell selection procedures are enhancing to incorporate mmWave related aspects like non-line-of-sight propagation and sensitivity to blockages [41], [42]. If the 5G-NR radio link is lost suddenly then the user service could be continued with LTE eNB after NR-to-LTE user path switching in Options 3 and 3x.…”

“…Though, such possibility pertaining to user data is not feasible in Option 3a, it still offers advantage of low signaling overhead through control anchored at the eNB. It is notable that signaling overhead are considerable during handover execution phase [42]. In case when a robust connection and higher reliability is required, Option 3x has an advantage over Option 3a.…”

“…Thus, the beam searching time can be substantial and may cause interruption similar to when handover occurs. Moreover, the dynamic characteristics of mmWave channels imply that the links to any one cell can deteriorate rapidly, necessitating a faster link failure detection and re-routing [42]. Thus, fast switching for a beam failure recovery is an important consideration for reliability in 5G networks.…”

A Comprehensive Survey on Mobility Management in 5G Heterogeneous Networks: Architectures, Challenges and Solutions

“…An efficient HO algorithm is proposed in [85] that can operate between 4G and 5G RATs. The proposed HO algorithm determines the target cell where HO will occur, not just considering RSS.…”