Abstract
In this paper, we propose an efficient macrodiversity handover (MDHO) technique for time-division-based interference-limited IEEE 802.16j multihop wireless relay networks. In the proposed MDHO, when the diversity set members of the mobile station (MS) are a base station (BS) and relay station (RS), the MS receives the signal transmitted by the BS in the first phase. During the second phase, it also receives the simultaneous transmissions of the BS and RS. Furthermore, when the diversity set members are two RSs or two BSs, the MS receives only the simultaneous transmissions of the diversity set members. The superiority of the proposed MDHO is validated using analytical and simulation results. The performance analysis metrics are the average downlink (DL) carrier to interference and noise ratio (CINR), the average DL spectral efficiency, and the average service outage probability. Evaluation results show that the proposed MDHO significantly outperforms the conventional MDHO. The CINR gain achieved using the proposed MDHO is 4.71 dB compared to the conventional MDHO.