Fractional Packet Duplication and Fade Duration Outage Probability Analysis for Handover Enhancement in 5G Cellular Networks

The current cellular network and the upcoming 5G mobile network requires meeting high reliability standards, very low latency and high-speed user connectivity. In some mission critical communications, the availability requirements may exceed five or even six nines (99.9999%). To meet such a critical requirement and minimize the impact of mobility during handover, a Fade Duration Outage Probability (FDOP) based multiple link connectivity handover method has been proposed. This best captures user experience, because the duration of a fade most impacts channel and source coding quality and success. By applying such a method, a high degree of availability can be achieved by utilizing two or more uncorrelated links based on minimum FDOP values. We contrast FDOP-based handover requirements versus traditional SINR based handovers or cell selection/re-selection methods in cellular systems. FDOP generally requires earlier handovers but with more time to complete the handover. Full packet duplication over multiple links is wasteful and frequently unnecessary so we demonstrate how a fractional duplication methodology can be used to meet FDOP requirements.