An ideal base station sequence for pattern recognition based handoff in cellular networks

The significance of having a correct criterion for evaluating handoff methods is that telecommunication providers can choose the right handoff algorithm in a cost effective way. In cellular or micro cellular environments in cities, users often move on predetermined paths. As the built environment is not changed often, this regularity can be exploited in a pattern recognition based handoff method. The most suitable sequence of assigned base stations or the Best Handoff Sequence (BHS) can provide the basis for pattern recognition based handoff methods. This paper describes in detail a computationally simple method to estimate BHS which can also be used as a benchmark for comparing different handoff algorithms. Further, it uses the recent work in Call Quality Signal Level (CQSL) evaluation to compare various well known handoff methods.