Intelligent Xn-Based Energy-Aware Handover Optimization in 5G Networks via NWDAF-Orchestrated Agent Framework

초록

Energy-aware mobility management in dense Fifth Generation (5G) networks is increasingly challenged by frequent handovers and unnecessary activation of sleeping next-generation NodeBs (gNBs), which lead to excessive energy consumption and degraded mobility reliability. Conventional Xn-based handover schemes rely on static radio thresholds and implicitly assume always-active gNBs, while existing NWDAF-enabled approaches improve stability but do not explicitly account for energy costs during handover execution. To address these limitations, this paper proposes the Intelligent Energy-Aware Handover Framework (IEAHF), a NWDAF-orchestrated architecture that integrates coordinated agent-based control for energy-aware mobility management. The proposed framework introduces an Energy-Aware Handover Optimization Agent (EA-HOA) to guide reliability-driven handover decisions and a Handover Energy Evaluation Agent (HEEA) to assess the energy impact of candidate handover actions, with both agents operating within a closed-loop control process enforced through Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM). By reformulating handover success to incorporate energy inefficiency and enabling per-handover gNB energy reasoning at decision time, IEAHF jointly optimizes service continuity and energy efficiency. System-level simulations demonstrate that the proposed Agent-NWDAF configuration consistently outperforms baseline and analytics-only schemes, achieving tightly concentrated Energy-Aware Handover Success Rates of approximately 0.98, reducing the Energy-Aware Handover Failure Rate to the range of 0.007-0.015, and delivering up to a 32% reduction in average gNB power consumption relative to an always-on baseline. These results indicate that IEAHF provides a scalable and effective solution for energy-efficient mobility management in 5G networks and establishes a foundation for energy-aware handover control in future Sixth Generation (6G) systems.

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