Abstract—The increase in mobile data traffic in Fifth-Generation (5G) networks means that new handover management and content delivery solutions are needed to keep the network running smoothly and the user experience high. This paper introduces an innovative integration of Named Data Networking (NDN) into the 5G architecture, incorporating an Enhanced Popularity-Based Caching mechanism at the Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) layer of the 5G user plane. Our design is different from previous ones because it changes how content is replicated based on how mobile and dense the User Equipment (UE) and gNB are in real time. Using Python-based models, we ran a lot of simulations to compare baseline 5G, edge-caching, and full NDN configurations. The proposed solution had a Handover Success Rate (HSR) of over 90%, a Cache Hit RAtio (CHR) of between 78% and 80%, an average latency of about 20 ms, and a packet loss rate of less than 1.0% across a wide range of network scenarios. The NDN integrated architecture cuts latency by up to 35%, boosts throughput by 40%, makes fallback efficiency improved by 36.8%, and raises average HSR by 25–40%. All of these changes improve the Quality of Experience (QoE) in environments with a lot of movement. The research we conduct aims to facilitate seamless, scalable, and resilient content delivery for next-generation 5G edge networks.


Keywords—Fifth-Generation (5G), Named Data Networking (NDN), edge caching, handover, Quality of Service (QoS), Quality of Experience (QoE)

Cite: Ade Nurhayati, Tutun Juhana, and Nana Rachmana Syambas, “Integration of Named Data Networking (NDN) in 5G Architecture for Handover Optimization and QoS Enhancement," Journal of Communications, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 411-430, 2026.

Copyright © 2026 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).