A Fuzzy Logical RAT Selection Scheme in SDN-Enabled 5G HetNets

Mobile communication systems are witnessing an ongoing-increase in connected devices and new types of services. This considerable increase has led to an exponential augmentation in mobile data traffic volume. The dense deployment of small base stations and mobile nodes in traffic hotspots is considered one of the potential solutions aimed at satisfying the emerging requirements in 5G/Beyond 5G wireless networks. However, the ultra-densification poses challenges for the mobility management, including frequent, unnecessary and ping-pong handovers, with additional problems related to increased delay and total failure of the handover process. In this paper, we propose a new handover management approach using the Software Defined Networking (SDN) paradigm to overcome performance limitations linked to handover taking place at dense femtocell environments. With the exploitation of SDN, data plane and control plane are separated thus the HO decision can be made at the SDN controller. In addition, in order to reduce the complexity and delay of handover process, a Fuzzy logic system is used to decide whether a target candidate is suitable for handover. Simulation results validate the efficiency of our proposal.