Call Dropping Performance Analysis
of the eNB-First Channel Access Policy
in LTE-Advanced Relay Networks
Xian Wang
∗‡
, Shi-Jinn Horng
∗
, Ray-Guang Cheng
†
, and Pingzhi Fan
‡
∗
Departmen t of Computer Science and Information Engineering
National Taiwan University of Science and Technolo gy (NTUST), Taipei 106, Taiwan
†
Departmen t of Electronic Engineering, NTUST, Taipei 106 , Taiwan
‡
School of Information Science and Technology, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610 031, China
E-mail: drwangxian@gmail.com, horngsj@yahoo.com.tw, crg@mail.ntust.edu.tw, p.fan@ieee.org
Abstract—Relay is one of the key technologies used by both
the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term
Evolution-Advanced (LTE-Advanced) and IEEE 802.16m to ame-
liorate cell edge throughput. Despite the throughput enhancement
achieved by deploying rel ay stations (RSs), wireless systems
supporting relay are vulnerable to frequent handoffs, which
deteriorate the dropping performance of realtime communica-
tions. Thi s paper proposes a mathematical model to appraise
the dropping performance of the eNB-first channel access policy
in LTE-Advanced relay networks. The eNB-first policy prefers
an eNB-channel over a RS-channel when determining an access
channel for a new and a handoff call. Closed-form analytical
result is obtain ed for the dropping probability of the eNB-first
policy and based on the result a numerical study is conducted
to evaluate the influences of various parameters on the dropping
performance. The result developed in this paper can be used
to adjust the call admission control strategies to get acceptable
dropping performance in LTE-Advanced relay networks.
I. INTRODUCTION
Relay is one of the promising technologies harnessed
by both the T hird Gen e ration Partnership Project (3GPP)
Long Term Evolution-Advanced (LTE-Advanced) and IEEE
802.16m to fulfill the requiremen t f or the pe ak data rate
by International Mobile Telecommunications-Advanced (IMT-
Advanced), 100 Mb/s for hig h mobility and 1 Gb/s for low
mobility over a bandwidth of 10 0 MHz [1]–[3]. In cellular
systems, coverage and capacity deteriorate at cell boundary
due to low Signal-to-Interference-plus-Noise-Ratio (SINR).
The rationale of relay technology is to solve this problem by
deploying relay statio ns (RSs) ne ar to cell border and using
them to relay radio transm issions between user equipments
(UEs)/mobile station s and eNode-B ( eNB)/base station (BS).
However, despite the throug hput enhancement achieved by de-
ploying RSs, a wireless network supporting relay is vulnerable
to the problem of frequent handoff, which can increase the
possibility of an ongoing call being dro pped, because normally
the transmitting power of a RS is smaller than that of an eNB
and there fore the size of a RS-cell is smaller than that of
an eNB-cell. Call dropping performance is a cruc ial Quality-
of-Service (QoS) metr ic concerning realtime communications,
which are sensitive to call dropping. This paper concentrates on
the dropping performance of LTE-Advanced supp orting relay
(hereafter referred to as LTE-Advanced relay networks). The
results developed in this paper are also applicable to IEEE
802.18m, as in the two standards RSs operate in a similar
way.
In LTE-Advanced relay networks, whe n determining an
access c hannel for a new and a handoff call, a UE has two
options, to access a RS-channel (a channel provided by a RS)
or an eNB-channel (a channel provided by an e N B). Generally,
the SINR of a RS-channel is larger than that of an eNB-
channel and thus the UE can enjoy higher throughput (i.e.,
better call quality) by communicatin g through a RS-channel.
Therefore, from the perspective of call qu a lity the UE should
choose a RS-ch a nnel. However, since the size of a RS-cell is
usually smaller than that of an eNB-cell, the UE has to perf orm
more handoffs if it ch ooses a RS-channel and the possibility
of the call being drop ped increases. Then, from the perspective
of call continuity the UE should select an eNB-channel. We
call the channe l access scheme preferring a RS-channel over
an eNB-chan nel the RS-first policy and the opposite scheme
the eNB-first policy. Therefore, a tool providing insights into
the dropping performance of the two policie s is urgent for
determining which channel access scheme should be adopted.
In this paper we propose a ma thematical model to evaluate
the dropping performance of the eNB-first policy. We der ive
closed-form analytica l result for the dropping probability of the
eNB-first policy and based on the re sult conduct a nume rical
study to assess the influences of various parameters o n the
dropping performance. Network operators can avail of th e
result d eveloped in this pap er to ad just call admission control
strategies for RSs and eNBs to ach ieve acceptable dropping
performance.
The rest of this paper is organize d as follows. Section II
introdu ces the architecture o f LTE-Advanced relay networks,
the eNB-first policy in detail, and the mobility model. In
Section III a mathe matical model is propo sed to evaluate the
dropping performance. Section IV conducts a numerical stu dy
to assess th e effects of various parameters on the dro pping
performance. Section V concludes th is p aper.
2011 IEEE 7th International Conference on Wireless and Mobile Computing, Networking and Communications (WiMob)
978-1-4244-7803-3/10/$26.00 ©2010 IEEE 43