Reducing handover signaling through base station skipping

The increase in network densification in order to cope with the ever- increasing capacity demand in 5G causes an increase in the handover rate, which may diminish the capacity gains for mobile users due to HO delays. In highly dense 5G cellular networks, HO delays may neutralize or even negate the gains offered by densification. In order to avoid this problem, it is proposed to, for a user-device travelling above a threshold speed in a network comprising a base station density above a threshold, alternate handover to the best serving base station with skipping handover between base stations, even if they are of the same layer. I. e., based on stochastic geometry, it is proposed to quantify the effect of handover delay on the average user rate in cellular networks and to skip the handover procedure with some BS's along users' trajectories when the handover frequency increases such that the handover delay substantially affects the data throughput.