Call admission and handoff control in multi-tier cellular networks: algorithms and analysis

In this paper, we investigate a call-admission and handoff-control framework for multi-tier cellular networks. We first propose and compare Call-Admission Control (CAC) algorithms based on the cell-dwelling time, by studying their impact on the handoff-call dropping and new-call blocking probabilities and the channel partitioning between the two tiers. Our results show that a simple, cell-dwelling-time-insensitive algorithm performs better under various mixes of user mobilities and call types. Moreover, there is an optimal channel partition of the overall spectrum between the tiers which minimizes the dropping and blocking probabilities for the two different CAC algorithms studied in this paper. Once the call is admitted into the network, we propose and compare various handoff- queuing strategies to reduce the call dropping probability. We show that implementing a queuing framework in one of the tiers (especially the upper, i.e., macrocellular, tier), results in a significant reduction in the dropping probability.