  The exploitation of the mm-wave bands is one of the most promising solutions
for 5G mobile radio networks. However, the use of mm-wave technologies in
cellular networks is not straightforward due to mm-wave harsh propagation
conditions that limit access availability. In order to overcome this obstacle,
hybrid network architectures are being considered where mm-wave small cells can
exploit an overlay coverage layer based on legacy technology. The additional
mm-wave layer can also take advantage of a functional split between control and
user plane, that allows to delegate most of the signaling functions to legacy
base stations and to gather context information from users for resource
optimization. However, mm-wave technology requires high gain antenna systems to
compensate for high path loss and limited power, e.g., through the use of
multiple antennas for high directivity. Directional transmissions must be also
used for the cell discovery and synchronization process, and this can lead to a
non-negligible delay due to the need to scan the cell area with multiple
transmissions at different directions. In this paper, we propose to exploit the
context information related to user position, provided by the separated control
plane, to improve the cell discovery procedure and minimize delay. We
investigate the fundamental trade-offs of the cell discovery process with
directional antennas and the effects of the context information accuracy on its
performance. Numerical results are provided to validate our observations.
