Chapter 2 outline

Mobility
7.5 Principles: addressing and routing to mobile users
7.6 Mobile IP
7.7 Handling mobility in cellular networks
7.8 Mobility and higher-layer protocols

Wireless and Mobile Networks 7-1

What is mobility?
 spectrum of mobility, from the network perspective:

no mobility high mobility

mobile wireless user, mobile user, mobile user, passing

using same access connecting/ through multiple
point disconnecting from access point while
network using maintaining ongoing
DHCP. connections (like cell
phone)

Wireless and Mobile Networks 7-2

 Mobility: vocabulary
home network: permanent home agent: entity that will
“home” of mobile perform mobility functions on
(e.g., 128.119.40/24)
behalf of mobile, when mobile is
remote

wide area
network
permanent address:
address in home
network, can always be
used to reach mobile
e.g., 128.119.40.186

Wireless and Mobile Networks 7-3

Mobility: more vocabulary
permanent address: remains visited network: network in
constant (e.g., 128.119.40.186) which mobile currently
resides (e.g., 79.129.13/24)
care-of-address: address
in visited network.
(e.g., 79,129.13.2)

wide area
network

foreign agent: entity in

visited network that
performs mobility
correspondent: wants
functions on behalf of
to communicate with
mobile.
mobile

Wireless and Mobile Networks 7-4

How do you contact a mobile friend:
Consider friend frequently I wonder where
changing addresses, how do you Alice moved to?
 find her?
search all phone books?
 call her parents?
 expect her to let you know
where he/she is?
 Facebook!

Wireless and Mobile Networks 7-5

Mobility: approaches
 let routing handle it: routers advertise permanent
address of mobile-nodes-in-residence via usual
routing table exchange.
• routing tables indicate where each mobile located
• no changes to end-systems
 let end-systems handle it:
• indirect routing: communication from
correspondent to mobile goes through home
agent, then forwarded to remote
• direct routing: correspondent gets foreign address of
mobile, sends directly to mobile

Wireless and Mobile Networks 7-6

Mobility: approaches
 let routing handle it: routers advertise permanent
address of mobile-nodes-in-residence
not via usual
routing table exchange.
scalable
• routing tables indicate
to millionswhere
of each mobile located
mobiles
• no changes to end-systems
 let end-systems handle it:
• indirect routing: communication from
correspondent to mobile goes through home
agent, then forwarded to remote
• direct routing: correspondent gets foreign address of
mobile, sends directly to mobile

Wireless and Mobile Networks 7-7

Mobility: registration
visited network
home network

1
2
wide area
network

mobile contacts
foreign agent contacts home foreign agent on
agent home: “this mobile is entering visited
resident in my network” network

end result:
 foreign agent knows about mobile
 home agent knows location of mobile

Wireless and Mobile Networks 7-8

Mobility via indirect routing
foreign agent
receives packets,
home agent intercepts forwards to mobile
packets, forwards to visited
foreign agent network
home
network
3
wide area
network
2
1
correspondent 4
addresses packets
mobile replies
using home address of
directly to
mobile
correspondent

Wireless and Mobile Networks 7-9

Indirect Routing: comments
 mobile uses two addresses:
• permanent address: used by correspondent (hence mobile
location is transparent to correspondent)
• care-of-address: used by home agent to forward
datagrams to mobile
 foreign agent functions may be done by mobile itself
 triangle routing: correspondent-home-network-
mobile
• inefficient when
correspondent, mobile
are in same network

Wireless and Mobile Networks 7-10

Indirect routing: moving between networks
 suppose mobile user moves to another network
• registers with new foreign agent
• new foreign agent registers with home agent
• home agent update care-of-address for mobile
• packets continue to be forwarded to mobile (but
with new care-of-address)
 mobility, changing foreign networks transparent: on
going connections can be maintained!

Wireless and Mobile Networks 7-11

Mobility via direct routing
foreign agent
receives packets,
correspondent forwards forwards to mobile
to foreign agent visited
network
home
network
3
1 2
4
mobile replies
correspondent
directly to
requests, receives
correspondent
foreign address of
mobile

Wireless and Mobile Networks 7-12

Mobility via direct routing: comments
 overcome triangle routing problem
 non-transparent to correspondent: correspondent
must get care-of-address from home agent
• what if mobile changes visited network?

3
1 2
4

Wireless and Mobile Networks 7-13

Accommodating mobility with direct routing
 anchor foreign agent: FA in first visited network
 data always routed first to anchor FA
 when mobile moves: new FA arranges to have data
forwarded from old FA (chaining)
foreign net visited
at session start
anchor
foreign
wide area agent
2
network
1 4
3
5
new
correspondent foreign
new foreign
agent network
correspondent agent

Wireless and Mobile Networks 7-14

Chapter 7 outline
7.1 Introduction Mobility
Wireless 7.5 Principles: addressing and
7.2 Wireless links, characteristics routing to mobile users
• CDMA 7.6 Mobile IP
7.3 IEEE 802.11 wireless LANs 7.7 Handling mobility in
(“Wi-Fi”)
7.4 Cellular Internet Access cellular networks
• architecture 7.8 Mobility and higher-layer
• standards (e.g., 3G, LTE) protocols

Wireless and Mobile Networks 7-15

Mobile IP
 RFC 3344
 has many features we’ve seen:
• home agents, foreign agents, foreign-agent registration,
care-of-addresses, encapsulation (packet-within-a-
packet)
 three components to standard:
• indirect routing of datagrams
• agent discovery
• registration with home agent

Wireless and Mobile Networks 7-16

 Mobile IP: indirect routing
foreign-agent-to-mobile packet
packet sent by home agent to foreign dest: 128.119.40.186
agent: a packet within a packet

dest: 79.129.13.2 dest: 128.119.40.186

Permanent address:
128.119.40.186

Care-of address:
79.129.13.2
dest: 128.119.40.186
packet sent by
correspondent

Wireless and Mobile Networks 7-17

 Mobile IP: agent discovery
 agent advertisement: foreign/home agents advertise
service by broadcasting ICMP messages (typefield = 9)

H,F bits: home and/or

foreign agent

R bit: registration
required

Wireless and Mobile Networks 7-18

Mobile IP: registration example
visited network: 79.129.13/24
home agent foreign agent
HA: 128.119.40.7 COA: 79.129.13.2
mobile agent
MA: 128.119.40.186
ICMP agent adv.
COA:
79.129.13.2
….
registration req.
registration req.
COA: 79.129.13.2
COA: 79.129.13.2 HA: 128.119.40.7
HA: 128.119.40.7 MA: 128.119.40.186
MA: 128.119.40.186 Lifetime: 9999
Lifetime: 9999 identification:714
identification: 714 ….
encapsulation format
….

registration reply
HA: 128.119.40.7
MA: 128.119.40.186
Lifetime: 4999
Identification: 714
encapsulation format
….
time
registration reply
HA: 128.119.40.7
MA: 128.119.40.186
Lifetime: 4999
Identification: 714
….

Wireless and Mobile Networks 7-19

Components of cellular network architecture

recall: correspondent
wired public
telephone
network

MSC MSC

MSC
MSC
MSC

different cellular networks,

operated by different providers

Wireless and Mobile Networks 7-20

Handling mobility in cellular networks
 home network: network of cellular provider you
subscribe to (e.g., Sprint PCS, Verizon)
• home location register (HLR): database in home
network containing permanent cell phone #, profile
information (services, preferences, billing), information
about current location (could be in another network)
 visited network: network in which mobile
currently resides
• visitor location register (VLR): database with entry for
each user currently in network
• could be home network

Wireless and Mobile Networks 7-21

GSM: indirect routing to mobile
home
HLR
network correspondent
2
home
Mobile
home MSC consults HLR, Switching
gets roaming number of Center
mobile in visited network

1 call routed
to home network
3 Public
VLR switched
Mobile
telephone
Switching
network
Center
4
home MSC sets up 2nd leg of call
to MSC in visited network
mobile
user MSC in visited network completes
visited call through base station to mobile
network
Wireless and Mobile Networks 7-22
GSM: handoff with common MSC
 handoff goal: route call via
new base station (without
interruption)
VLR Mobile  reasons for handoff:
Switching • stronger signal to/from new
Center
BSS (continuing
connectivity, less battery
old new
routing routing
drain)
old BSS • load balance: free up
new BSS
channel in current BSS
• GSM doesn't mandate why
to perform handoff (policy),
only how (mechanism)
 handoff initiated by old BSS

Wireless and Mobile Networks 7-23

 GSM: handoff with common MSC
1. old BSS informs MSC of impending
handoff, provides list of 1+ new BSSs
2. MSC sets up path (allocates resources)
to new BSS
VLR Mobile 3. new BSS allocates radio channel for
Switching
Center 2
use by mobile
4 4. new BSS signals MSC, old BSS: ready
1
7
8 5. old BSS tells mobile: perform handoff to
3
new BSS
old BSS 5 6
new BSS 6. mobile, new BSS signal to activate new
channel
7. mobile signals via new BSS to MSC:
handoff complete. MSC reroutes call
8 MSC-old-BSS resources released

Wireless and Mobile Networks 7-24

GSM: handoff between MSCs
 anchor MSC: first MSC
visited during call
home network
correspondent
• call remains routed
Home through anchor MSC
MSC
 new MSCs add on to end of
anchor MSC
MSC chain as mobile moves
PSTN
MSC to new MSC
MSC
 optional path minimization
MSC
step to shorten multi-MSC
chain

(a) before handoff

Wireless and Mobile Networks 7-25

GSM: handoff between MSCs
 anchor MSC: first MSC
home network
visited during call
Home
correspondent • call remains routed
MSC through anchor MSC
anchor MSC
 new MSCs add on to end of
PSTN
MSC MSC chain as mobile moves
MSC to new MSC
MSC
 optional path minimization
step to shorten multi-MSC
chain
(b) after handoff

Wireless and Mobile Networks 7-26

Handling Mobility in LTE

 Paging: idle UE may move from cell to cell:

network does not know where the idle UE is
resident
• paging message from MME broadcast by all eNodeB to
locate UE
 handoff: similar to source P-GW target
MME
3G: MME

 preparation phase
 execution phase
 completion phase
old new
old routing routing new
eNodeB eNodeB

Wireless and Mobile Networks 7-27

Mobility: cellular versus Mobile
IP cellular element Comment on cellular element Mobile IP element
Home system Network to which mobile user’s permanent Home network
phone number belongs
Gateway Mobile Home MSC: point of contact to obtain routable Home agent
Switching Center, or address of mobile user. HLR: database in
“home MSC”. Home home system containing permanent phone
Location Register number, profile information, current location of
(HLR) mobile user, subscription information

Visited System Network other than home system where mobile Visited
user is currently residing network
Visited Mobile Visited MSC: responsible for setting up calls Foreign agent
services Switching to/from mobile nodes in cells associated with
Center. MSC. VLR: temporary database entry in visited
Visitor Location system, containing subscription information for
Record (VLR) each visiting mobile user

Mobile Station Routable address for telephone call segment Care-of-

Roaming Number between home MSC and visited MSC, visible address
(MSRN), or “roaming to neither the mobile nor the correspondent.
number”

Wireless and Mobile Networks 7-28

Wireless, mobility: impact on higher layer protocols

 logically, impact should be minimal …

• best effort service model remains unchanged
• TCP and UDP can (and do) run over wireless, mobile
 … but performance-wise:
• packet loss/delay due to bit-errors (discarded packets,
delays for link-layer retransmissions), and handoff
• TCP interprets loss as congestion, will decrease congestion
window un-necessarily
• delay impairments for real-time traffic
• limited bandwidth of wireless links

Wireless and Mobile Networks 7-29