Optimal Guard Channel Reservation and its Comparison with Fractional Channel Policies in Mobile Cellular Network

Abstract

In the current communication era, 2G voice services coexist with higher generation mobile network voice services like Voice over Long Term Evolution (VoLTE) in 4G and Voice over New Radio (VoNR) in 5G. Subscribers registered in the 5G network, but their voice option is in 4G so voice calls can be handled through the Evolved Packet System (EPS) Fallback or Radio access technology (RAT) Fallback. Similarly, subscribers register in a 4G network, but their voice option is in 3G or 2G so voice calls can be handled through Circuit Switched Fallback (CSFB). To provide uninterrupted voice service in such wireless networks usually handoff calls (HCs) receive higher priority than new calls (NCs). So, some guard radio resources (i.e., channels in 2G or RBs in 4G or 5G) may be reserved in each cell to handle this type of HCs. If more channels are reserved for HCs, then the handoff call-dropping probability (HCDP) will be decreased and at that time the new call-blocking probability (NCBP) will be increased. So, by considering the target HCDP if channels are reserved for HC, then HCDP will remain below the target and NCBP will be minimum. In this paper first, we proposed an optimal channel reservation (OCR) policy that reserves guard channels according to the given target HCDP. Second, we compared our OCR policy with fractional channel (FC), limited fractional channel (LFC), and uniform fractional channel (UFC) policies. Finally, we observed the performance of all these policies considering the Global System for the Mobile Communication (GSM) network.

KEYWORDS:

• Fractional channel
• Limited fractional channel
• Mobile cellular network
• Optimal channel
• Uniform fractional channel

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Promod Kumar Sahu

Promod Kumar Sahu received his MCA degree from the University College of Engineering Burla, Sambalpur University, Odisha, India. Further, he has received his MTech degree in computer science from the PG Department of Computer Science, Berhampur University, Odisha, India. Currently, he is pursuing his PhD in the Department of Computer Science, at Utkal University, Odisha, India. His research interest includes computer networks, mobile computing and mobile ad hoc networks. Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]

Hemanta Kumar Pati

Hemanta Kumar Pati received his PhD in computer science in the year 2007 from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Kharagpur, India. He has also worked with the Department of Computer Science, Trinity College, University of Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland as a research staff (postdoctoral research fellow). He is currently working as an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIIT Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. His research interests include computer networks, mobile computing, mobile ad hoc networks and distributed systems. Email: [email protected], [email protected]

Sateesh Kumar Pradhan

Sateesh Kumar Pradhan started his career as a lecturer in computer science in the year 1985. He is the former professor and HOD Department of Computer Science and Application at Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. Previously he has worked at Berhampur University, King Khalid University and IIBM Patna. He has published many journal and conference papers and, also organised conferences and workshops.His areas of interest include neural computing, cloud computing, mobile computing and wireless sensor networks. Email: [email protected]