Applying the Concept of Load Balancing to the Handover Process in WiMAX Network

Abstract

To support mobility in WiMAX networks, IEEE 802.16 defines the handover process when Mobile Stations (MSs) move across the boundary of the coverage area of Base Station (BS). By adding the concept of load balancing, we proposed three handover algorithms which use the QoS Information of neighbor BSs as references for choosing the target BS. Compared with the traditional algorithm which only considers the signal strength in the handover process, our proposed algorithms can average the radio resource usage and the loading of BSs. We used the simulation program to evaluate these algorithms. We found that the concept of load balancing can prune off unnecessary scanning to BSs without radio resource, reduce the scanning time and distribute the resource loading efficiently.