Adaptive measurement for energy efficient mobility management in ultra-dense small cell networks

Ultra-dense network is considered a promising solution for high network capacity. It is favored for its scalability and cost effectiveness. However, when a user equipment (UE) is in a long discontinuous reception cycle and at high speeds, it may suffer from poor mobility performance and high power consumption. While handover algorithms have been widely studied, the impact of mobility measurements on mobility performance is largely ignored. In this paper, we investigate how to perform mobility measurements intelligently. We analyze the radio link failure rate and the timing of handover. We then propose a mechanism to adjust measurement frequency based on the analysis to minimize the power consumption. Our simulation results demonstrate the mechanism can save considerable amount of energy in ultra-dense networks.