Handover performance is examined in terms of reductions in unnecessary handovers and delay time. An analytical method is described to determine the optimum hysteresis level and signal averaging time for both micro- and macro-cells. Results demonstrate the possible compromise between handover parameters, i.e. signal averaging time and hysteresis level, under the influence of shadow fading. These results could be used in setting the parameters of the handover algorithm to achieve less delay in handover decision making and less unnecessary handovers.

A mathematical formulation is developed for systematic tracking of the random movement of a mobile station in a cellular environment. It incorporates mobility parameters under the most generalized conditions, so that the model can be tailored to be applicable in most cellular environments. This mobility model is used to characterize different mobility-related traffic parameters in cellular systems. These include the distribution of the cell residence time of both new and handover calls, channel holding time, and the average number of handovers. It is shown that the cell residence time can be described by the generalized gamma distribution. It is also shown that the negative exponential distribution is a good approximation for describing the channel holding time.

A mobile radio channel is usually characterized by superposition of three independent components which reflect small-, medium-, and large-scale propagation effects. The contributions of each of these components are considered. Emphasis is made on the effect of shadow fading (the medium-scale propagation component), which is important in handover decision making in cellular networks.