Handover reduction using optical matrix switch for indoor LTE cell deployment

Abstract

The Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI) and 10 Gbps Ethernet are the promising solution for connecting the baseband unit (BBU) and the remote antenna unit (RAU) of the Long-Term Evolution (LTE) system. It is also capable of deploying the radio cell at the indoor location. Since the CPRI link is based on the point-to-point link, the handover process occurs whenever the mobile user moves across the cell. Handover is more increased than outdoor location due to the limitation of transmitting power of the indoor equipment. In this paper, in order to reduce the handover, the Radio over Fiber (RoF) link is introduced instead of the point-to-point link. And the optical matrix switch controls to combine multiple cells into one cell. Simulation results show that the proposal reduces the number of handover by 38.27% compared to point-to-point based network.