Mobility Management

Traditional mobile communication applications were in two-way voice communication, text, emails and remote file downloading. The emerging applications in video streaming, sensor networking, telemedicine and surveillance are expected to dominate and shape the next generation of mobile communication systems.

One critical feature that enables the ubiquitous communication is the mobility management - which is perceived to provide continuous constant quality of service even under very harsh and unexpected conditions.

Basic mobility management operations include location update as mobile units move around and Hand-off management to handle the continuity of conversation.

Location Management
Location update strategies The location update procedure allows the system to keep location knowledge more or less accurately in order to find the user. Location discovery (paging) The paging process by the system sends paging messages in all cells where the mobile terminal could be located. A network must retain information about the locations of endpoints in the network in order to route traffic to the correct destinations. Location Information Dissemination

Two operations of LM
The paging operation is performed by the cellular network. When an incoming call arrives for a mobile station, the cellular network will page the mobile station in all possible cells to find out the cell in which the mobile station is located so that the incoming call can be routed to the corresponding base station. This process is called paging. The number of all possible cells to be paged is dependent on how the location update operation is performed.

The location update operation is performed by an active mobile station. Messages are sent regarding its changing points of access to the fixed n/w.

Location Update Strategies

When a mobile should perform location updates and what location-related information the mobile should send to the network?
update the mobiles precise location every time the mobile changes its network attachment points, example, Mobile IP knowing a mobiles precise location allows the network to deliver traffic to the mobile

 when mobiles change their network attachment points frequently, maintaining precise locations of all mobiles could lead to heavy location update traffic, which wastes limited radio bandwidth to save scarce resources on the mobile and in the wireless network, a network can group network attachment points into location areas only keeps track of which location area each mobile is likely in when the user and the network have no traffic to send to each other the network tries to determine a mobiles precise location only when it needs to deliver user traffic to the mobile

Location update algorithms

Two types: Static
Initialization of location update is decided by topology of cellular n/w A group of cells is assigned a LA identifier Each BS broadcasts this identifier number periodically over control chl. When identifier changes, MS will make an update to the location

Limitation - Ping-pong effect Several handoffs that occur back and forth between two BSs

 Dynamic
Initialization of location update is decided by the mobility of the user. State based and user profile based State based metrics-time elapsed, distance travelled, no. of Las crossed etc User profile based maintains a sequential list of LAs

A location update scheme can be classified as either global or local. A location update scheme is global if all subscribers update their locations at the same set of cells, and a scheme is local if an individual subscriber is allowed to decide when and where to perform location update. A local scheme is also called individualized or per-user based.

In GSM, LM.
Home & visiting databases are called Home Location Register (HLR) & Visiting Location Register (VLR) respectively. When the MS observes a change in the LA identity, it transmits a location update to MSC through its BS. The MSC contacts its VLR with the location update. VLR does nothing if it serves the old & the new LA. If the VLR has no info about the MS, it contacts the HLR of the MS via a location registration message. The HLR authenticates and acknowledges the location registration, updates its own database, and sends a message to the old VLR to cancel the registration.

Location Update
Time-based update update periodically at a constant interval (called update interval) Movement-based update update whenever it traverses a predefined number of location areas, called movement threshold most existing wireless networks (e.g., GSM, GPRS, 3GPP, 3GPP2) use movement-based location update strategy in which the movement threshold is one

 Distance-based update update whenever it has traveled a predefined distance threshold from the location area in which it performed its last location update distance may be measured in many different ways, such as physical distance, or cell distance (i.e., distance measured in number of radio cells or location areas)

 Parameter-based update update whenever the value of any preselected parameter changes these strategies are sometimes referred to as profile-based strategies

 Implicit update a mobile does not send any message explicitly for the purpose of location update instead, the network derives the mobiles location when the network receives other signaling or user data from the mobile

 Probabilistic update update based on a probability distribution function a probabilistic version of time-based, movement-based, or distance-based location update strategies may be created example: a time-based location update the new update time interval after each update may be dynamically adjusted based on the probability distribution of call arrival times

Movement-Based vs. Distance-Based Location Update Strategies

 Assumptions the mobile last performed a location update in the center location area the number on each arrowed line indicates the number of times the mobile has crossed a cell boundary the movement threshold used by a movement-based update strategy is three cell boundary crossings the distance threshold used by the distancebased update strategy is three cells

 Movement-based update strategy

update at the third, sixth, and the ninth times it crosses a cell boundary
Distance-based update strategy

only update once, i.e., at the ninth time it crosses a cell boundary

Location Discovery (Paging)

Network performs paging

send one or multiple paging messages to a paging area where the mobile is likely to be located
Upon receiving a paging message

a mobile needs to update its precise current location with the network

Issues with Paging

Paging should be done within a reasonable time constraint

if paging takes too long, the call setup latency could become intolerable to end users and call attempts may be dropped
How to construct paging areas?

paging areas do not have to be identical to location areas

How to search a paging area to locate a mobile?

Paging Strategies
Blanket paging Sequential paging Geographic paging Group paging

Blanket Paging
Blanket paging is deployed in most of todays wireless networks A paging message is broadcast simultaneously to all radio cells inside the paging area where the mobile is located Advantages simplicity low paging latency Drawback broadcasting paging messages to a large number of radio cells could consume a significant amount of scarce resources, including radio bandwidth and power on all the mobiles in the paging area

Blanket Paging
Page every cells within the LA

Sequential Paging
A large paging area is divided into small paging sub-areas (e.g., radio cells) Procedure paging messages are first sent to a subset of the paging areas where the network believes the mobile is most likely to be located if the mobile is not in this sub-area, subsequent paging messages will be sent to another paging sub-area the process continues until either the mobile is found or the entire paging area is searched

Sequential Paging
Page the cells sequentially until the user is found
8 7 6

1
4

2 3 5

9 10

 Issues
how to divide a large paging area into smaller paging subareas which sub-areas should be searched first

Blanket Paging vs. Sequential Paging

Blanket paging cost paging delay large small Sequential small large

sequential group paging may be used if there is a constraint on paging cost

Geographic & Group Paging Strategies

Geographic paging network uses geographical position of a mobile to determine where a paging message should be sent Group paging to locate a mobile, the network pages a group of mobiles together instead of paging only the mobile to be located

What is Handoff???
Involves entire range of actions required to handle an ongoing connection when the mobile terminal moves from one point of access to another. Handoff is very important because of the cellular architecture used for spectrum utilization.

Handoff effects
In cellular n/w involving voice, you hear a audible click when handoff takes place (changing point of access from one BS to another BS) In WLAN, packets are lost when handoff changes the point of access from one AP to another. Additional congestion control mechanisms required. Causes ping-pong effect due to several handoffs between two BS back & forth: has toll on user quality reception & network load.

Types of handoffs
Hard handoff (further has: Intra and Inter cell handoffs): A firm decision is made when to handoff & has no simultaneous connection between two or more stations. Soft handoff (further has: multiway soft handoffs & softer handoffs): A conditional decision is made whether to handoff or not. Depending on the pilot signal from 2 or more BSs, eventually a hard decision is made. In the interim period user has simultaneous traffic with all candidate BSs.

Hard handoff

A hard handoff .
In a hard handoff, the link to the prior BS is terminated before or as the user is transferred to the new cells BS; the MS is linked to no more than one BS at any given time. Hard handoff is primarily used in FDMA and TDMA ,where different frequency ranges are used in adjacent channels in order to minimize channel interference. So when the MS moves from one BS to another BS, it becomes impossible for it to communicate with both BSs (since different frequencies are used).

When handoff should be initiated?

Handoff initiation-Performance evaluation

..

It is assumed that the signal is averaged over time, so that rapid fluctuations due to the multipath nature of the radio environment can be eliminated. Figure shows a MS moving from one BS (BS1) to another (BS2). The mean signal strength of BS1 decreases as the MS moves away from it. Similarly, the mean signal strength of BS2 increases as the MS approaches it. Relative Signal Strength: This method selects the strongest received BS at all times. The decision is based on a mean measurement of the received signal. This method is observed to provoke too many unnecessary handoffs, even when the signal of the current BS is still at an acceptable level.

Relative Signal Strength with Threshold:

its relative value is compared to the signal strengths of the two BSs at the point at which they are equal. If the threshold is higher than this value, say T1 in Figure, this scheme performs exactly like the relative signal strength scheme, so the handoff occurs at position A. If the threshold is lower than this value, say T2 in Figure, the MS would delay handoff until the current signal level crosses the threshold at position B. In the case of T3, the delay may be so long that the MS drifts too far into the new cell. This reduces the quality of the communication link from BS1 and may result in a dropped call. Also causes co-channel interference to users. The scheme may create overlapping cell coverage areas. A threshold is not used alone in actual practice because its effectiveness depends on prior knowledge of the crossover signal strength between the current and candidate BSs.

Handoff decision
Network-Controlled Handoff Mobile-Assisted Handoff Mobile-Controlled Handoff

Network-Controlled Handoff
The network makes a handoff decision based on the measurements of the MSs at a number of BSs. In general, the handoff process (including data transmission, channel switching, and network switching) takes 100200 ms. Information about the signal quality for all users is available at a single point in the network that facilitates appropriate resource allocation. Network-controlled handoff is used in first-generation analog systems such as AMPS (advanced mobile phone system), TACS (total access communication system)

Mobile-Assisted Handoff
In a mobile-assisted handoff process, the MS makes measurements and the network makes the decision. In the circuit-switched GSM (global system mobile), the BS controller (BSC) is in charge of the radio interface management. means allocation and release of radio channels and handoff management. The handoff time between handoff decision and execution in such a circuit-switched GSM is approximately 1 second.

Mobile-Controlled Handoff
In mobile-controlled handoff, each MS is completely in control of the handoff process. This type of handoff has a short reaction time (on the order of 0.1 second). MS measures the signal strengths from surrounding BSs and interference levels on all channels. A handoff can be initiated if the signal strength of the serving BS is lower than that of another BS by a certain threshold.