Unesco - Eolss Sample Chapters: Mobility Management in Wireless Systems
Unesco - Eolss Sample Chapters: Mobility Management in Wireless Systems
Unesco - Eolss Sample Chapters: Mobility Management in Wireless Systems
Shantidev Mohanty
Intel Corporation, USA
Contents
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1. Introduction
2. Importance of Mobility Management
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3. Location Management
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3.1. Location Management in Stand-Alone Cellular Networks
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3.2. Location Management in Non-IP-Based Heterogeneous Cellular Networks
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3.3. Location Management in IP-Based Wireless Networks
4. Handoff Management
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4.1. Handoff Process in Stand-Alone Cellular Networks
4.2. Handoff Process in IP-Based Wireless Networks
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Protocols
5. Research in Mobility Management
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Summary
First and second generation of wireless networks are based on non-IP based
infrastructure. On the other hand, next-generation wireless systems are envisioned to
have an IP-based infrastructure with the support of heterogeneous access technologies.
Efficient mobility management techniques are critical to the success of both current (i.e.,
first and second generation wireless networks) and next-generation wireless systems.
Mobility management enables mobile wireless networks to locate roaming terminals for
wireless services and to maintain connections as the terminal moves into a new service
area. It contains two components: location management and handoff management. In
this article, different aspects of mobility management are discussed. Location
management and handoff management in non-IP-based and IP-based wireless networks
are described in detail and state-of-the-art technologies for efficient mobility
management are presented.
1. Introduction
First and second generation of wireless networks are based on circuit switched
infrastructure. These networks support voice and low data rate services such as short
message service (SMS). However, the air interface technologies of such networks are
inadequate to support high data rate services such as multimedia, streaming services,
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file transfer, and gaming. Next-generation wireless systems are designed to support
these high data rate services. These networks are envisioned to have an IP-based
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infrastructure with the support of heterogeneous access technologies. IP-based wireless
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networks are better suited for supporting the rapidly growing mobile data and
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multimedia services, since they can bring the successful Internet service paradigm to
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mobile providers and users. In addition, IP-based wireless networks can integrate
seamlessly with the Internet to allow mobile users to access the information,
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applications, and services available over the Internet. Moreover, IP technologies provide
a better solution to integrate different radio technologies transparently in such a way that
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One of the research challenges for next-generation wireless systems is the design of
intelligent mobility management techniques that take advantages of IP-based
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Thus, mobility management supports mobile terminals (MTs), allowing users to roam
while simultaneously offering them incoming calls and supporting calls in progress [2].
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be further classified into intra- and inter-system location management and handoff
management.
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handoff latency. Therefore, efficient handoff management design implies minimized
handoff failure rate, packet dropping rate, and handoff latency. In addition, Quality-of-
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Service (QoS) requirements, scalability, and robustness are also important.
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2. Importance of Mobility Management
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Mobility in wireless networks can take different forms [2], such as:
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Terminal mobility: the ability for a user terminal to continue to access the
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network service), and accounting (collect information on the resources used by a
user).
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In the following sections, technical details of location management and handoff
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management are explained. Research challenges and the current research work on
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mobility management are also introduced.
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3. Location Management
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Location management enables the system to track the attachment points of MTs
between consecutive communications [3]. It includes two major tasks. The first is
location registration or location update, where the MT periodically informs the system
to update relevant location databases with its up-to-date location information. The
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second is call delivery, where the system determines the current location of the MT
based on the information available at the system location databases when a
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communication for the MT is initiated. Two major steps are involved in call delivery:
determining the serving database of the called MT and locating the visiting cell/subnet
of the called MT. The latter is also called paging, where polling messages are sent to all
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the cells/subnets within the residing registration area of the called MT.
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There are two standards for location management in stand-alone cellular networks:
Electronic / Telecommunications Industry Associations (EIA/TIA) Interim Standard 41
(IS-41) and the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) mobile application
part (MAP). The IS-41 standard is adopted in North America, while the GSM MAP is
commonly used in Europe. Both standards are based on a centralized two-level
management hierarchy. Two types of location databases, home location register (HLR)
and visitor location register (VLR), are used to store the location information of MTs.
Each user is permanently associated with an HLR in his/her subscribed network. A user
profile which includes the subscribed services, billing information, and location
information is stored at the HLR for each user. Each VLR stores a copy of a user profile
(downloaded from the HLR) for the MT visiting its associated area.
Cells in cellular networks are partitioned into registration areas (RAs) in IS-41
(location area in GSM). All the base station controllers (BSCs) in an RA are connected
to a mobile switching center (MSC), as shown in Figure 1, which provides switching
functions and coordinates location registration and call delivery. Each MSC has a co-
located VLR for location tracking. All the MSCs are connected through the backbone
wireline network. An RA is usually under the control of one MSC. When an MT moves
from one RA to another, it performs a location update by sending a registration message
to the new VLR through the new base station (step 1 and 2 in Figure 1). The new VLR
sends a location registration message to the HLR (step 3). The HLR performs the
required authentication procedures and records the ID of the new serving VLR of the
MT. The HLR then sends a registration acknowledgment message to the new VLR
together with a copy of the user profile of the MT (step 4). The HLR also sends a
registration cancellation message to the old VLR serving the old RA (step 5). The old
VLR removes the record of the MT and returns a cancellation acknowledgment message
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to the HLR (step 6).
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When initiating a call in cellular networks, the calling MT first sends a call initiation
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signal to the serving MSC through a nearby base station (step 1 in Figure 2). The MSC
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sends a location request message to the HLR of the called MT (step 2). The HLR
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determines the serving VLR of the called MT and sends a route request message to the
VLR (step 3). The MSC serving the called MT allocates a temporary identifier called
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temporary local directory number (TLDN) to the MT and sends a reply to the HLR
together with the TLDN (step 4). The HLR forwards the TLDN to the MSC of the
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calling MT (step 5). The network then set up a connection from the serving MSC of the
calling MT to the serving MSC of the called MT (step 6). After receiving the call, the
serving MSC of the called MT broadcasts polling signals to all cells within the
associated RA. The called MT sends a reply to the polling signal which allows the MSC
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Figure 2: Call delivery in stand-alone cellular networks
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3.2. Location Management in Non-IP-Based Heterogeneous Cellular Networks
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When multiple heterogeneous cellular networks are co-located, it is suggested that the
interworking/interoperating (I&I) function should be provided to accommodate roaming
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between dissimilar networks [9]. Intra-system roaming can be handled by the legacy
location management mechanisms from stand-alone cellular networks. However,
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additional gateways are needed to handle the interworking and interoperating issues
when roaming among heterogeneous cellular networks. For existing practical systems,
several solutions are proposed for some specific pairs of interworking systems. Under
the proposed solutions, the I&I function is implemented in either some additional
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interworking unit with the help of dual-mode handsets or a dual-mode HLR to take care
of the transformation of signaling formats, authentication, and retrieval of user profiles.
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grouped into two categories: location management for adjacent dissimilar systems with
partially overlapping coverage at the boundaries and location management in multitier
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systems where service areas of heterogeneous networks are fully overlapped. All these
solutions propose additional entities that take care of interworking issues between
different wireless access networks.
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When the service areas of heterogeneous cellular networks are fully overlapped, an MT
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is reachable via multiple networks. Multitier wireless systems are recognized as an
efficient way to improve the capacity and quality of mobile services. The objective is to
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integrate the higher- and lower-tier systems into a single system to provide the
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advantages of all tiers in an integrated manner. The multitier HLR (MHLR) approach is
introduced in [11]. Inside the MHLR, a tier manager connects all heterogeneous HLRs.
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Based on this MHLR approach, two location registration strategies are proposed, single
registration (SR) and multiple registration (MR). Under the SR method, an MT is
allowed to register with the MHLR on only one tier, the lowest, at any given time. The
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MT always receives services from the lowest tier because of low cost and high
bandwidth. Under the MR method, an MT is allowed to register with the MHLR on
multiple tiers concurrently at any given time. The individual tiers perform their own
roaming management as if they are not integrated. The tier manager of the MHLR keeps
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Biographical Sketches
Jiang Xie received her Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) degree from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China,
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in 1997, Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) degree from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
in 1999, and Master of Science (M.Sc.) and Ph.D. degrees from Georgia Institute of Technology in 2002
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and 2004, respectively, all in electrical engineering. She is currently an assistant professor with the
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. Her
current research interests include resource and mobility management of wireless networks, Quality-of-
Service (QoS) provisioning, and next-generation Internet. She is an area editor of Computer Networks
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(Elsevier Science). She has served on the organizing and program committees of various international
conferences on computer networks and mobile computing. She is the Vice Chair of the Interest Group on
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Shantidev Mohanty received the BTech (Hons.) degree from the Indian Institute of Technology,
Kharagpur, India, in 2000. He received the MS and PhD degrees from the Georgia Institute of
Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, in 2003 and 2005, respectively, both in electrical engineering. He is
currently working with Intel Corporation, Portland, Oregon. His current research interests include
wireless networks, mobile communications, mobility management, WiMAX networks, and cross-layer
protocol design.
From 2000 to 2001, he worked as a mixed signal design engineer for Texas Instruments, Bangalore, India.
He worked as a summer intern for Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies, Holmdel, New Jersey, during the
summers of 2002 and 2003 and for Applied Research, Telcordia Technologies, Piscataway, New Jersey,
during the summer of 2004.