A handoff algorithm based on estimated load for dense green 5G networks

Two important challenges facing 5G are energy efficiency and mobile users' mobility in heterogeneous wireless networks (HetNets). One of the important techniques for improving energy efficiency is base station (BS)'s switching between ON and OFF modes which allows the BS to turn off some its components in lower load situations. In this paper, we address user's seamless mobility problem and propose a handoff (HO) algorithm based on BS's estimated load. The proposed HO algorithm based on estimated load (PHA-EL) balances load by imposing HOs from highly loaded BSs to lightly loaded BSs. When a BS is overloaded, the user's quality of service (QoS) will degrade and therefore the PHA-EL is used to improve system throughput. The PHA-EL algorithm is combined with BSs which are able to switch between ON and OFF modes (PHA-EL/ON-OFF switching) in order to improve the energy efficiency of the system.Therefore, this algorithm achieves both energy- and spectral- efficiency. Simulation results indicate that the proposed algorithm yields better performance in terms of average number of HOs, average load per BS and average payoff per BS, compared to baseline algorithm.