Effect of soft and softer handoffs on CDMA system capacity

The effect of soft and softer handoffs on code-division multiple-access (CDMA) system capacity is evaluated for unsectorized and sectorized hexagonal cells according to an average bit energy-to-interference power spectral density, which corresponds to a bit-error rate (BER) of 10^-3. The effect of imperfect sectorization on sectorization efficiency is also considered. On the reverse link, there is no capacity loss as no extra channels are needed to perform soft handoff, while the macrodiversity provided by soft handoff can improve the reverse-link quality and extend the cell coverage. On the forward link, when soft handoff is employed in unsectorized cells, the capacity loss due to two traffic channels assigned to a user in the handoff zone is 0.2% or 1.1% for a voice activity factor of 3/8 or 1/2, respectively. As the forward-link capacity is higher than that of the reverse link, this small capacity loss does not affect the system capacity. For sectorized cells having three sectors per cell, there are overlapping coverage areas between sectors, where mobiles in these areas are subjected to an increase in cochannel interference. For an overlapping angle of 5°, the sectorization efficiency is 0.96 and 0.7 for the reverse-link and forward-link systems, respectively. When soft and softer handoffs are employed, the forward-link sectorization efficiency is improved to 0.97. We find the application of soft and softer handoff improves not only the forward-link capacity, but also the signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) for mobiles near the cell and sector boundaries     

Forward-link capacity of a DS/CDMA system with mixed multiratesources

Some studies have been done on capacity of a code division multiple access (CDMA) system with mixed multirate sources. However, a vast majority of these studies have concentrated on the reverse-link. This trend comes from the fact that the capacity of a CDMA system is reverse-link limited. However, the forward-link can be a limiting link because emerging data services are likely to require higher data rates in the forward-link than in the reverse-link. In this paper, we analyze and simulate the forward-link capacity of a CDMA system with mixed multirate sources in a multipath fading channel. The outage probability of the forward-link is derived for a CDMA system with mixed multirate sources. By introducing a forward-link power factor, the forward-link Erlang capacity is obtained in a closed form. The forward-link capacity is analyzed in terms of the number of multipaths, the number of RAKE fingers in a mobile station, closed-loop power control, and impact of soft handoff. The results in this paper can be applied to overall system design of a CDMA system with multimedia services in future mobile communication systems     

A seamless handoff scheme for IEEE 802.11 wireless networks

The advance of computer network technologies such as IEEE 802.11 wireless local area network has made it possible for users to connect to Internet almost anywhere. A mobile node (MN) is likely to move between different base stations while running applications. The IETF has defined the Mobile IP (MIP) to allow MNs to maintain their communication uninterrupted while roaming across different IP subnets. However, the mechanisms defined in MIP may cause undesired connection disruptions or packet losses, which will significantly degrade the quality of real‐time applications. It is an important and challenging issue to support seamless handoff management. To achieve seamless handoff, we propose a unified scheme to address application quality degradation. Our main contribution is the concept and implementation of utilising buffering and resending method to eliminate the packet losses while keeping the end‐to‐end delay of real‐time traffic flow in an acceptable value. The NS‐2 simulation results show that our proposed scheme can significantly maintain application quality during layer‐2 and ‐3 handoffs. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fast and scalable wireless handoffs in support of mobile Internet audio

Future internetworks will include large numbers of portable devices moving among small wireless cells. We propose a hierarchical mobility management scheme for such networks. Our scheme exploits locality in user mobility to restrict handoff processing to the vicinity of a mobile node. It thus reduces handoff latency and the load on the internetwork. Our design is based on the Internet Protocol (IP) and is compatible with the Mobile IP standard. We also present experimental results for the lowest level of the hierarchy. We implemented our local handoff mechanism on Unix-based portable computers and base stations, and evaluated its performance on a WaveLAN network. These experiments show that our handoffs are fast enough to avoid noticeable disruptions in interactive audio traffic. For example, our handoff protocol completes less than 10 milliseconds after a mobile node initiates it. Our mechanism also recovers from packet losses suffered during the transition from one cell to another. This work helps extend Internet telephony and teleconferencing to mobile devices that communicate over wireless networks. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A mobility-based load control scheme in Hierarchical Mobile IPv6 networks

By introducing a mobility anchor point (MAP), Hierarchical Mobile IPv6 (HMIPv6) reduces the signaling overhead and handoff latency associated with Mobile IPv6. In this paper, we propose a mobility-based load control (MLC) scheme, which mitigates the burden of the MAP in fully distributed and adaptive manners. The MLC scheme combines two algorithms: a threshold-based admission control algorithm and a session-to-mobility ratio (SMR)-based replacement algorithm. The threshold-based admission control algorithm gives higher priority to ongoing mobile nodes (MNs) than new MNs, by blocking new MNs when the number of MNs being serviced by the MAP is greater than a predetermined threshold. On the other hand, the SMR-based replacement algorithm achieves efficient MAP load distribution by considering MNs’ traffic and mobility patterns. We analyze the MLC scheme using the continuous time Markov chain in terms of the new MN blocking probability, ongoing MN dropping probability, and binding update cost. Also, the MAP processing latency is evaluated based on the M/G/1 queueing model. Analytical and simulation results demonstrate that the MLC scheme outperforms other schemes and thus it is a viable solution for scalable HMIPv6 networks.     

Scheme for improving transmission performance of realtime traffic using priority queues in HMIPv6

Hierarchical Mobile IPv6 (HMIPv6) has been proposed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to reduce handoff latency and signaling overhead. In the new protocol, Mobility Anchor Point (MAP) receives all packets in place of Mobile Node (MN) and MAP services are transferred to Care of Address (CoA) of MN. However, a MAP may be a single point of performance bottleneck because the MAP should not only handle signaling traffic but also process data tunneling traffic for all MNs registered in a MAP domain. So, MAPs need MAP management scheme for the multimedia services or real time services. We propose a MAP selection scheme that can select different MAPs according to the traffic characteristics of MNs and a multilevel queue processing method that can process binding updates based on the priorities of queues in a MAP when MNs send BU. Quantitative results of the performance analysis show that our proposal can reduce the location update cost by 31% and the total cost by 14%. With the multilevel queues, we could reduce the total cost by 12% and 17% for D=4 and D=8 respectively.     

A Proactive mobile‐initiated fast handoff scheme using the multihomed approach

Mobile IP (MIP) defines a mobility management for mobile users to continuously access data when the currently attachment is changed to another network. However, when mobile node (MN) roams between network segments, the handoff latency results in packet losses and transmission delay. In this paper, we propose a multihomed fast handoff scheme (MFH‐MIP) to decrease the handoff cost. In the proposed MFH‐MIP scheme, each MN is implemeted with the link layer trigger and multihomed techniques. Based on the link layer trigger, MN can collect signal strengths of nearby access points (APs) and switch to a new link automatically when the old link becomes unsuitable to connect. Using the multihomed technique, MN can prepare for handoff using two (or more) interfaces, in which (i) one is connected with the old link to receive packets and (ii) the other one is used to access nearby APs and select the most suitable one as the new link, in parellel. In this way, MN can continuously transmit and receive packets during handoff. Based on the proposed method, MN can roam smoothly among different networks in the wireless environment. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Performance Analysis of Trunk Network for Inter-MSC Soft Handoffs in CDMA Cellular Communication Systems

The soft handoffs between two adjacent MSC's should be employed to support the calls requesting handoffs to an MSC while minimizing the undesirable “ping pong” phenomenon of back-and-forth handoffsbetween two adjacent cells in conventional hard handoffs. In this paper, the soft handoff scheme between two MSC's is considered using the trunk between the packet routers for the two MSC's. The trunk network is proposed to support the inter-MSC soft handoff scheme in the service area with many MSC's. The probability that a°soft handoff to an adjacent MSC will be blocked due to the shortage of the trunk capacity is derived.     

An analytical model of two-tier handoff mechanisms for a hierarchical NEMO system

In this paper, we present an analytical model of two-tier handoff mechanisms for a hierarchical NEMO system composed of access routers (ARs), mobile routers (MRs), and visiting mobile nodes (MNs). In the proposed two-tier handoff mechanism, service areas of MR and AR are respectively divided into handoff and non-handoff regions. Consequently, concurrent voice/data sessions in a hierarchical AR-MR model can be classified into four types according to the locations of MN and MR within the MR's and the AR's service areas, respectively. We build a mathematical model with 4-D Markov chains to analyze the performance in terms of the system utilization and the blocking probabilities of new sessions and handoff sessions. For the purpose of validation, we conduct experiments through simulation. Simulation results reveal that both the blocking probabilities of new sessions and handoff sessions are very close to the analytical results, particularly when the system utilization is high. The impacts of session residence time and session arrival rates on the blocking probabilities are also investigated.     

Performance analysis of channel-borrowing handoff scheme based onuser mobility in CDMA cellular systems

Code-division multiple-access (CDMA) cellular systems use soft handoff. Although the capacity of CDMA systems is interference-limited in nature, channel shortages may occur because soft handoff uses several channels simultaneously. To cope with this problem, we propose an improved handoff method that borrows channels from stationary calls participating in soft handoff and allocates the borrowed channels to handoff requests by moving calls when a channel shortage occurs. Borrowing from stationary calls is possible because these calls do not undergo fast-fading and do not require receiver diversity. The proposed method is designed to avoid increased interference resulting from channel borrowing. The proposed channel-burrowing handoff scheme is analyzed in a situation involving both moving and stationary calls. A comparison is made between the performances of the typical IS-95-based handoff scheme and the proposed scheme. Numerical results show that the proposed scheme is better than the IS-95 scheme in view of the handoff refused probability, the handoff queuing delay, and total interference     

Adaptive channel reservation scheme for soft handoff in DS-CDMAcellular systems

Soft handoff techniques in direct-sequence code-division multiple-access (DS-CDMA) systems provide mobile calls with seamless connections between adjacent cells. Channel reservation schemes are used to give high priority to more important soft handoff attempts over new call attempts. However, since the number of soft handoff attempts varies according to environmental conditions, fixed reservation schemes for handoff attempts can be inefficient. An adaptive channel reservation scheme is herein proposed to control the size of reservation capacity according to varying the number of soft handoff attempts. The proposed scheme also includes a balancing procedure between soft handoff failure and new call blocking to maximize the system capacity. To evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme, a Markovian model is developed that considers the interference-limited capacity effect of DS-CDMA systems. The analytical result shows that the proposed scheme yields a considerable enhancement in terms of new call blocking and soft handoff failure probabilities when compared with the conventional fixed channel reservation scheme     

A mapping forwarding approach for supporting mobility in networks with identifier/locator separation

The identifier/locator separation has been widely recognized as a feasible solution for addressing the current Internet's routing scaling problem. Moreover, such a separation solution in terms of mobility can keep connection survivability and support global seamless roaming. A critical challenge in supporting efficient mobility is how to update the identifier‐to‐locator mappings of mobile nodes (MNs). In this paper, we propose a mapping forwarding (MF) scheme for location management in the identifier/locator separation architecture. In the MF scheme, a tunnel router (xTR) is selected as an agent of an MN and keeps the MN's identifier‐to‐locator mapping invariable by setting up an MF chain. As long as the MN is managed by the same xTR, the MN's mapping stored in the xTR of each correspondent node of the MN does not need to be updated, thus reducing the location update signaling cost. Meanwhile, the unchanged mapping assures the correct forwarding of packets, which reduces mobility‐related disruption and enhances the location management's reliability. In addition, for the handoff in two MF chains, we propose a data‐triggered update scheme that can achieve route optimization. To evaluate the proposed MF scheme, we establish two analytical models and formulate the blocking probability and the total protocol cost. The performance results show how the blocking probability changes under various parameters and how the MF scheme can effectively reduce the blocking probability compared with the location management scheme without the MF strategy. Meanwhile, our analysis demonstrates that the MF scheme has a lower overhead when the mobility rate is high. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A cross‐layer partner‐based fast handoff mechanism for IEEE 802.11 wireless networks

In wireless/mobile networks, users freely and frequently change their access points (APs) while they are communicating with other users. To support the mobility of mobile nodes (MNs), Mobile IPv6 (MIPv6) is used to inform the information of MN's home address and current care‐of‐address (CoA) to its home agent. MIPv6 suffers from a long delay latency and high packet losses (PLs) because MIPv6 does not support micromobility. A Hierarchical Mobile IPv6 (HMIPv6) is proposed which provides micromobility and macromobility to reduce handoff latency (HL) by employing a hierarchical network structure. In this paper, we propose a cross‐layer partner‐based fast handoff mechanism based on HMIPv6, called the PHMIPv6 protocol. Our PHMIPv6 protocol is a cross‐layer, layer‐2 + layer‐3, and cooperative approach. A cooperative node, called a partner node (PN), is adopted in the PHMIPv6 protocol. A new layer‐2 trigger scheme used in the PHMIPv6 protocol accurately predicts the next AP and then invites a cooperative PN in the area of the next AP. With the cooperation of the PN, the CoA can be pre‐acquired and duplicate address detection operation can be pre‐executed by the PN before the MN initializes the handoff request. The PHMIPv6 protocol significantly reduces the handoff delay time and PLs. In the mathematical analysis, we verified that our PHMIPv6 protocol offers a better HL than the MIPv6, HMIPv6, and SHMIPv6 protocols. Finally, the experimental results also illustrate that the PHMIPv6 protocol actually achieves performance improvements in the handoff delay time, PL rate, and handoff delay jitter. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Handoff effect on CDMA forward link capacity

In this letter, an analysis on CDMA forward link capacity with hard and soft handoffs, when a handoff decision is based on filtered pilot signal strengths, is provided. For the soft handoff, capacity based on three different power allocation schemes is investigated: equal power, equal signal to interference ratio and selection diversity. Contrary to previous results that soft handoff provides a capacity decrease in the CDMA forward link, it is concluded that soft handoff mitigates capacity loss due to filtering through diversity gain, and may in fact provide higher capacity.     

Improving TCP performance with fast adaptive congestion control during soft vertical handoff

Recently, the research on the interworking between 3G cellular networks and WLANs is actively being constructed. To integrate these two technologies, there are many issues such as the network architecture, mobility management, and security which should be solved. During vertical handoff, some undesirable phenomena may mistakenly trigger TCP congestion control operations and thus degrade TCP performance. In this paper, we propose an approach that can quickly estimate available bandwidth when a mobile node (MN) handoff occurs. A sender updates the adaptive slow-start threshold (ssthresh) and congestion window size (cwnd) to improve TCP performance during soft vertical handoff in hybrid mobile networks. Our scheme requires only minor modifications of the transport layer of the end hosts. Simulation results show that our scheme effectively improves the TCP performance.     

Soft handoff and connection reliability in cellular CDMA downlinks

A two-phase soft handoff scheme, which includes an initial power allocation phase followed by a power redistribution phase, is proposed. The initial power allocation phase makes a handoff decision for each connection by assigning a connection to the BS with the best link quality and allocating a minimum amount of power from the BS for the connection. The initial handoff decisions are made for individual connections independent of other connections or the BS power availability. Therefore, there might be heavily loaded and lightly loaded BSs because (i) traffic load may not be equally distributed in all cells, and (ii) the channel condition of the connections is random. The power re-distribution phase is to smooth out the loading on the system by coordinating the power allocations among neighboring BSs so that more connections can receive reliable transmissions. We then develop an analytical model for studying the connection reliability with the proposed soft handoff scheme. Our results show that the proposed two-phase soft handoff scheme can significantly improve connection reliability and increase system capacity in downlink transmissions.     

TBCC译码辅助的短数据块盲帧同步技术

咬尾卷积码（Tail-biting Convolutional Codes， TBCC）消除传统归零卷积码带来的码率损失，在短数据块编码时具有较明显的性能优势。本文结合TBCC译码，从降低同步开销，提高短数据块传输效率角度，提出一种适用于TBCC译码辅助盲帧同步方案。该方案利用TBCC校验矩阵约束构造节点矩阵，然后累加每个比特的真实度量作为同步度量准则，并在识别出正确同步位置的同时完成译码。仿真结果表明，对于短数据块盲同步，基于软判决的计算真实度量方案相比硬判决有明显的性能优势，在高信噪比下接近理想同步的性能。      

Seamless vertical handoff using modified weed optimization algorithm for heterogeneous wireless networks

In the global scenario, a variety of wireless access networks are available. Different types of applications such as real time, nonreal time, and high bandwidth availability are used for heterogeneous wireless networks. Therefore, it is necessary for a service provider to make an appropriate connection support. For better performance, connections are to be exchanged among the different networks using seamless vertical handoff (VHO). The proposed algorithm shows the effect of optimization technique, which involves handoff decision process using vertical handoff triggering and selection of the network. The handoff triggering is initiated by using the received signal strength (RSS). In traditional method, handoff triggering is initiated by using RSS only. This method, modified weed optimization (M-WO) algorithm, reduces the unnecessary handoff by considering both RSS and velocity of the mobile node in handoff triggering. The parameters such as battery lifetime, handoff call dropping rate, load, dynamic weights adaptation and so on are to be considered individually or combined to make an effective network selection process. This paper highlights a novel effect ofM-WOalgorithm for decision making during the VHO. Our effort is to essentially optimize the system load, so that it reduces the handoff call dropping rate and the battery power consumption of the mobile node (MN). Weight of each QoS metrics is adjusted along with the networks changing conditions to trace the M-WO. Therefore, the novel VHO decision-making algorithm is superior to the existing SSF and OPTG methods. The simulation results show that the performance ofM-WOalgorithm is far better than SSF andOPTGmethods in terms of load, handoff call dropping rate and battery lifetime of MN.     

Connection architecture and protocols to support efficient handoffs over an ATM/B-ISDN personal communications network

The next generation personal communication network will likely internetwork wireless networks via the ATM/B-ISDN to enable ubiquitous broadband personal communication services. Support of user terminal mobility, particularly the capability for fast and seamless handoffs, over the ATM/B-ISDN is an expected requirement that is not currently met. We propose extensions to the ATM/B-ISDN user transport and signaling network architectures and signaling protocols to meet these requirements. The new architecture employs the Mobile Virtual Circuit (MVC), a dynamic connection tree in which routes are predetermined but not set up for potential handoff connections. During a handoff, associated signaling using source-routing with a new robust adaptation feature is employed for fast resource allocation to establish the handoff connection by distributed control. We also address the new problem of packet ordering synchronization to enable a seamless handoff. The connection tree reconfigures after each handoff to enable continuous support of successive handoffs. The proposed scheme optimizes handoff delay over the ATM/B-ISDN while minimizing unnecessary resource allocation, chances of handoff failure, and call processing load in the intelligent network, and the extensions are backward compatible to current ATM/B-ISDN standards and implementations.This paper was presented in part in PIMRC'95 in Toronto, and Globecom'95 in Singapore. This work was supported by the Canadian Institute of Telecommunications Research (CITR), funded under the Canadian Federal Government's Networks of Centres of Excellence Program.     

Design and Performance Analysis of a New Soft Handoff Scheme for CDMA Cellular Systems

In this paper, a new soft handoff scheme for CDMA cellular systems is proposed and investigated. It is pointed out that some handoff calls unnecessarily occupy multiple channels with little contribution to the performance of handoffs in IS95/CDMA2000-based handoff schemes or systems. To alleviate performance degradation due to channel resource shortage during soft handoff, a new concept of channel convertible set (CCS), which contains several types of handoff calls that unnecessarily occupy extra channels by considering the relative mobility of the calls in the handoff area is introduced. A new scheme that reallocates those extra channels in the CCS to new handoff calls when there is no available free channel in the system is proposed. Furthermore, according to the variation of the CCS, the proposed scheme dynamically adjusts the number of guard channels reserved exclusively for handoff. Then, the feasibility and implementation issues of the proposed scheme are discussed. To evaluate and compare performance indexes of different soft handoff schemes, continuous-time Markov chain models are constructed. Automated generation and solution of the underlying Markov chains are facilitated by stochastic reward net models, which are specified and solved by stochastic Petri net package. Numerical results show that this scheme can significantly decrease both the number of dropped handoff calls and the number of blocked calls without degrading the quality of communication service and the soft handoff process.