Mobility Management

 Traditional mobile communication applications were in two-way voice

communication, text, emails and remote file downloading.

Mobility Management  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.

1. Location Management  Basic mobility management operations include location update as mobile units
move around and location lookup as mobile units are wanted.
2. Handoff Management

Players Mobility issues

 Nokia  Radio resource management
 Location info management
 Erricsson  Security
 Cisco  Temporary loss of connectivity with movement
 Scarce resources : Small devices, low battery power, small
 Nortel CPU, less memory, light weight,….
 React to sudden change in environment due to bandwidth and
 Siemens train system other resource changes
 http://communications.siemens.com/cds/fron  ????

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Location Management Location tracking…

 Location management schemes are based on users'
mobility and incoming call rate characteristics.
 The network mobility process has to face strong
antagonism between its two basic procedures: location
update (or registration) and paging.
 The location update procedure allows the system to keep
location knowledge more or less accurately in order to find
the user.
 Location registration also is used to bring the user's service
profile near its location.
 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 tracking (also referred to as mobility tracking
or mobility management) is the set of mechanisms by
which location information is updated in response to
endpoint mobility.
 It is important to differentiate between the identifier of
an endpoint and its address (i.e., where the endpoint
is located).
 Mechanisms for location tracking provide a time-
varying mapping between the identifier and the
address of each endpoint.
 Most location tracking mechanisms may be perceived
as updating and querying a distributed database (the
location database) of endpoint identifier-to-address
mappings.
Location Tracking (update)
 Has two components: (1) determining when and how a change in a
location database entry should be initiated; and (2) organizing and
maintaining the location database.
 In cellular networks, endpoint mobility within a cell is transparent to the
network, and hence location tracking is only required when an endpoint
moves from one cell to another.
 Location tracking typically consists of two operations:
 (1) updating (or registration), the process by which a mobile endpoint
initiates a change in the location database according to its new location;
and
 (2) finding (or paging), the process by which the network initiates a query
for an endpoint's location (which also may result in an update to the
location database).
 Most location tracking techniques use a combination of updating and
finding in an effort to select the best trade-off between update overhead
and delay incurred in finding.
 Specifically, updates are not usually sent every time an endpoint enters a
new cell, but rather are sent according to a predefined strategy so that the
finding operation can be restricted to a specific area. .
Location update algorithms
 Two types:
 Static
 Dynamic
 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.
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.
Location Tracking
 Location management methods are most adapted and
widely used in current cellular networks, e.g., GSM, IS-
54. IS-95, etc.
 The location management methods are broadly
classified into two groups.
 The first group includes all methods based on
algorithms and network architecture, mainly on the
processing capabilities of the system.
 The second group contains the methods based on
learning processes, which require the collection of
statistics on subscribers' mobility behavior, for instance.
Location Management
 Location management schemes are based on users'
mobility and incoming call rate characteristics.
 The network mobility process has to face strong
antagonism between its two basic procedures: location
update (or registration) and paging.
 The location update procedure allows the system to keep
location knowledge more or less accurately in order to find
the user.
 Location registration also is used to bring the user's service
profile near its location.
 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.
Paging schemes
 Blanket paging in GSM : Paging the MS in all the cells within a
LA (location area) simultaneously.
 If the LA update is correct, in the very first paging cycle, the MS
will receive a paging request & respond to it.
 Here the delay of the paging response is kept to a minimum.
The disadvantage is that paging has to be done in several cells
with the same LA!
 Closest-cells first: The cell where the MS was last seen is paged
first followed by subsequent rings of cells that are equidistant
from this cell in each paging cycle.
 Also called sequential paging.
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 it’s 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.
What is Handoff???
 Involves entire gamut of actions required to handle an
ongoing connection when the mobile terminal moves
from one point of access to another.
 Handoff is v important cos of the cellular architecture
used for spectrum utilization.
 Reference:
http://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/28/0471
4190/0471419028.pdf
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.
Emerging issues in LM…
 Database architecture for 3G & 4G..(access to db
and management of queries to reduce delay)
 Reduce load on a centralized db (such as HLR), local
caches of the MS can be maintained…..used by
Mobile IP.
 Alternate location update strategies & paging
algorithms are investigated.
 Traffic modeling to investigate the performance..
 ?????
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.
Hard handoff
A hard handoff …. When handoff should be initiated?
 In a hard handoff, the link to the prior BS is
terminated before or as the user is transferred to the
new cell’s 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).

Handoff initiation-Performance evaluation .. Handoff decision

 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
 Network-Controlled Handoff
eliminated.
 Figure shows a MS moving from one BS (BS1) to another (BS2). The  Mobile-Assisted Handoff
mean signal strength of BS1 decreases as the MS moves away from it.
Similarly, the mean signal strength of BS2 increases as the MS  Mobile-Controlled Handoff
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.

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 100–200 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), and NMT
(advanced mobile phone 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.
Handoff Schemes in Single Traffic
Systems
 In this scheme: we have non-priority, priority, and queuing handoff
schemes for a single traffic system such as either a voice or a data
system.
 we assume that a system has many cells, with each having S
channels. The channel holding time has an exponential distribution
with mean rate . Both originating and handoff calls are generated in
a cell according to Poisson processes, with mean rates O and H,
respectively.
 We assume here a system with a homogeneous cell. The focus is
on a single cell (called the marked cell). Newly generated calls in
the marked cell are labeled originating calls (or new calls). A handoff
request is generated in the marked cell when a channel holding MS
approaches the marked cell from a neighboring cell with a signal
strength below the handoff threshold.