Ensuring a seamless connection during the mobility of various User Equipment (UE) will be one of the major challenges facing the practical implementation of the Fifth Generation (5G) networks and beyond. Several key determinants will significantly contribute to numerous mobility challenges. One of the most important determinants is the use of millimeter waves (mm-waves) as it is characterized by high path loss. The inclusion of various types of small coverage Base Stations (BSs), such as Picocell, Femtocell and drone-based BSs is another challenge. Other issues include the use of Dual Connectivity (DC), Carrier Aggregation (CA), the massive growth of mobiles connections, network diversity, the emergence of connected drones (as BS or UE), ultra-dense network, inefficient optimization processes, central optimization operation, partial optimization, complex relation in optimization operations, and the use of inefficient handover decision algorithms. The relationship between these processes and diverse wireless technologies can cause growing concerns in relation to handover associated with mobility. The risk becomes critical with high mobility speed scenarios. Therefore, mobility issues and their determinants must be efficiently addressed. This paper aims to provide an overview of mobility management in 5G networks. The work examines key factors that will significantly contribute to the increase of mobility issues. Furthermore, the innovative, advanced, efficient, and smart handover techniques that have been introduced in 5G networks are discussed. The study also highlights the main challenges facing UEs' mobility as well as future research directions on mobility management in 5G networks and beyond.

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This paper presents an experimental characterization of millimeter-wave (mm-wave) channels in the 6.5 GHz, 10.5 GHz, 15 GHz, 19 GHz, 28 GHz and 38 GHz frequency bands in an indoor corridor environment. More than 4,000 power delay profiles were measured across the bands using an omnidirectional transmitter antenna and a highly directional horn receiver antenna for both co- and cross-polarized antenna configurations. This paper develops a new path-loss model to account for the frequency attenuation with distance, which we term the frequency attenuation (FA) path-loss model and introduce a frequency-dependent attenuation factor. The large-scale path loss was characterized based on both new and well-known path-loss models. A general and less complex method is also proposed to estimate the cross-polarization discrimination (XPD) factor of close-in reference distance with the XPD (CIX) and ABG with the XPD (ABGX) path-loss models to avoid the computational complexity of minimum mean square error (MMSE) approach. Moreover, small-scale parameters such as root mean square (RMS) delay spread, mean excess (MN-EX) delay, dispersion factors and maximum excess (MAX-EX) delay parameters were used to characterize the multipath channel dispersion. Multiple statistical distributions for RMS delay spread were also investigated. The results show that our proposed models are simpler and more physically-based than other well-known models. The path-loss exponents for all studied models are smaller than that of the free-space model by values in the range of 0.1 to 1.4 for all measured frequencies. The RMS delay spread values varied between 0.2 ns and 13.8 ns, and the dispersion factor values were less than 1 for all measured frequencies. The exponential and Weibull probability distribution models best fit the RMS delay spread empirical distribution for all of the measured frequencies in all scenarios.

This paper presents millimeter wave (mmWave) measurements in an indoor environment. The high demands for the future applications in the 5G system require more capacity. In the microwave band below 6 GHz, most of the available bands are occupied; hence, the microwave band above 6 GHz and mmWave band can be used for the 5G system to cover the bandwidth required for all 5G applications. In this paper, the propagation characteristics at three different bands above 6 GHz (19, 28, and 38 GHz) are investigated in an indoor corridor environment for line of sight (LOS) and non-LOS (NLOS) scenarios. Five different path loss models are studied for this environment, namely, close-in (CI) free space path loss, floating-intercept (FI), frequency attenuation (FA) path loss, alpha-beta-gamma (ABG), and close-in free space reference distance with frequency weighting (CIF) models. Important statistical properties, such as power delay profile (PDP), root mean square (RMS) delay spread, and azimuth angle spread, are obtained and compared for different bands. The results for the path loss model found that the path loss exponent (PLE) and line slope values for all models are less than the free space path loss exponent of 2. The RMS delay spread for all bands is low for the LOS scenario, and only the directed path is contributed in some spatial locations. For the NLOS scenario, the angle of arrival (AOA) is extensively investigated, and the results indicated that the channel propagation for 5G using high directional antenna should be used in the beamforming technique to receive the signal and collect all multipath components from different angles in a particular mobile location.

The explosive daily dependence on wireless communication services necessitates the research to establish ultrawideband communication systems with ultrahigh bit rate transmission capabilities. The advent of the fifth-generation (5G) microwave link transmitting at millimeter-wave (mm-wave) frequency band is a promising technology to accommodate the escalating demand for wireless services. In this frequency band, however, the behavior of the transmission channel and its climatic properties are a major concern. This is of particular importance in tropical regions where the climate is mainly rainy with large raindrop size and high rainfall rate that may interact destructively with the propagating signal and cause total attenuation for the signal. International Telecommunication Union (ITU) introduced a global rain attenuation model to characterize the effect of rain on the propagating signal at a wideband of frequencies. The validity of this model in tropical regions is still an open question for research. In this paper, real measurements are conducted at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Johor Bahru, Malaysia, to investigate the impact of rain on the propagation of mm-waves at 26 GHz over the microwave 5G radio link system. Rainfall rate and rain attenuation data sets are collected for one year at one sample per min sampling rate. Both data sets are used to estimate signal propagation conditions in comparison to the ITU model prediction. From the presented results, it is found that at 0.01% percentage of time and rainfall rate of about 120 mm/hr, the propagated signal would experience 26.2 dB losses per kilometer traveled. In addition, there is a significant deviation between the empirical estimation of the worst month parameters and the ITU worst month parameter prediction. Similarly, rainfall rate and rain attenuation estimated through the ITU model imposes a large deviation as compared with the measurements. Furthermore, more accurate empirical worst month parameters are proposed that yielded more accurate estimation of the worst month rainfall and rain attenuation predictions in comparison to the ITU model predictions. Trans Emerging Tel Tech. 2019;30:e3697. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/ett