An intra-LA location update strategy for reducing paging cost

The blanket paging strategy in current mobile networks may waste a lot of wireless bandwidth. While keeping the standard location area (LA) based location update (LU) strategy unchanged, we propose an intra-LA LU scheme to reduce the paging cost. While a mobile terminal (MT) is residing in an LA with a cell called anchor cell, where the MT usually stays for a significant period, an intra-LA LU is performed whenever the MT changes its location between the anchor cell and the rest of cells in the LA. For an incoming call, either the anchor cell or the rest of cells in the LA is paged to locate the MT. Thus the paging cost is greatly reduced, especially when the called MT is located in its anchor cell.     

小区分层依概率寻呼的位置管理策略

位置管理是移动通信领域的一个具有挑战性的问题,涉及到位置更新和位置查找操作.我国及其他国家目前正在使用的个人通信网络中,基本的位置管理策略(简称"基本策略")的位置查找操作采用的是,在整个位置区中同步寻呼移动台.由于所要寻找的移动台只在由众多小区所组成的位置区内的一个小区中,因此,"基本策略"会造成系统资源的极大浪费.本文给出一种对位置区内的小区进行分层,按移动台在各层小区的概率从大到小的次序,逐层进行寻呼的位置管理策略(简称"分层策略").在假定移动台在各个小区的逗留时间是符合一般概率分布的随机变量的条件下,推导出移动台处于各层小区的概率及"分层策略"所需搜索的小区平均个数公式.证明了"分层策略"的位置管理费用不大于"基本策略".     

Non-Blocking Pipeline Paging with Known Location Probabilities for Wireless Systems

Paging schemes for wireless systems have been well studied in the literature. However, most schemes are considered on per user basis. In these schemes, when an incoming call arrives at a mobile terminal (MT), a paging request (PR) is put in a queue. PRs are served in an FIFO manner. When a PR is served, a search process is carried out to find the corresponding MT in a location area (LA). Most schemes study how to achieve a better performance in terms of cost with/without delay constraints per PR, and totally ignore other PRs in the queue until the MT is found or all the cells in the LA have been paged. In this paper, we propose a non-blocking pipeline probability paging scheme, which assumes known knowledge on location probabilities of individual MTs, under a paging delay constraint, where the location probability of an MT in a cell is the probability that the MT is in the cell. The proposed scheme is independent of the number of PRs in the queue and the arrival rate of PRs. Our study shows that the proposed scheme outperforms both the sequential probability paging scheme with known knowledge on location probabilities of individual MTs and the blanket paging scheme in terms of discovery rate and the total delay. Finally, we study several optimization problems with quality of service constraint for the pipeline probability paging scheme.     

Joint distribution of numbers of location updates and cell boundary crossings in movement-based location management schemes

The movement-based location management (LM) scheme is a well-known dynamic LM scheme that is relatively easy to implement. In this letter, we derive the joint probability distribution of the number of cell boundary crossings and number of location updates of a mobile terminal, assuming Poisson call arrivals and generally distributed cell residence time, under movement-based LM. The derived movement statistics are used to bound the movement threshold so that the number of location updates is kept within a reasonable range. Numerical results are presented.     

An integrated strategy for reducing location management cost

In this letter, an integrated location information management strategy is proposed for mobile networks, where local anchor and replica are deployed to efficiently manage the location information of a mobile terminal (MT) based on its call and mobility characteristics. As an MT's user is roaming within the local signal transfer point (LSTP) region serving the user's home or workplace, the MT's location change is reported to a local anchor (LA)-the visitor location register (VLR) associated with the user's home or workplace. Meanwhile, the LA's location is replicated at several switches (called the replicas) originating relatively high call rates to the MT. As a result, the MT's home location register (HLR) needs to be accessed only when the MT changes its LSTP region or an incoming call for the MT is generated by a nonreplica originating switch. This is shown to reduce location tracking costs.     

A dynamic anchor-cell assisted paging with an optimal timer for PCS networks

An intra location area (intra-LA) location update (LU) scheme is proposed to increase paging accuracy for PCS networks. In the proposed scheme, each mobile terminal (MT) has a valid/invalid anchor-cell, which may be dynamically changed. A MT updates its anchor-cell information only when the status is changed, i.e., from the valid to the invalid or vice versa. Therefore, the intra-LA LU cost is minimized. Whenever the MT enters a cell, a timer is set. The MT realizes that the entered cell is its current anchor-cell if the timer expires before leaving the cell. An analytical model is proposed, and the optimal time threshold is derived explicitly.     

Location update cost of distance-based scheme for PCS networks with CTRW model

This letter concerns the optimization of the dynamic location-update area (LA) for the per-user distance-based scheme in personal communication service (PCS) networks. We have two main contributions: (1) under the general and popular one-dimensional (1-D) continuous-time random walk (CTRW) mobility model, we propose a novel framework to analyze the location update cost; (2) with this framework, we investigate the impact of call arrivals and the initial position of the mobile terminal (MT) on the position of the LA, which was neglected by previous work. Simulation shows that our theoretical model is very accurate.     

On location management for personal communications networks

Personal communications services (PCS) support mobile terminals (MTs) which are free to travel within the service coverage area. In order to effectively locate an MT when a called is initiated, location management schemes are used to keep track of the locations of the MTs. The current approach to location management requires each MT to report its location to the network periodically. The location information is then stored in databases. When a call is initiated. The network determines the current location of the called MT through a database lookup and paging procedure. A currently available standard for location management is described. Research results on location management are surveyed in detail     

A State-based Dynamic Location Management Scheme

We consider a state-based dynamic location management scheme, in which the user is partitioned into different mobility state set, and his location area size is changed dynamically corresponding to the state set that he belongs to. Comparing with the fixed LA scheme, numerical experiment result shows its performance can be improved by 30% whilethe current location and paging procedure can still be applied. Besides, as this scheme does not need to process complicated user information, the requirement of computing power can be decreased significantly in compare with the user-based schemes. Our scheme can be used in current 2G mobile systems (such as GSM, CDMA) and the Third Generation (3G) mobile systems with slightly modification of the equipment software.     

A Location Management Scheme Using Direction Characteristics of Mobile Terminals in Mobile Communication Networks

Recently, as the number of mobile terminals (or users) keeps explosively increasing, the location management to track the mobile terminals in mobile communication networks is becoming more important. However, previous schemes have used static location information without any consideration about the moving direction of a mobile terminal. For a fixed paging area, this results in unnecessary pagings, thus increasing the location management cost. In this paper, we propose a new location management scheme using the direction characteristics of a mobile terminal. The direction vector is defined to represent the moving direction of a mobile terminal and to compute a distance from the cell where a location update occurs to the current cell. The offset operation of direction vectors is also presented to represent the position of a mobile terminal in a paging area. This allows the mobile terminal to determine whether a location update will be performed or not. The mobile terminal can also vary its own paging area dynamically according to its moving direction whenever it moves across its paging area. In addition, we develop an analytical model for the proposed scheme which captures the direction characteristics of a mobile terminal based on the Markov model. Analytical results show that the proposed scheme can reduce location management cost by forming a dynamic paging area along the moving direction of a mobile terminal when compared to other schemes.Ui-Sung Song received his B.S and M.S. degrees in Computer Science and Engineering from Korea University, Seoul, Korea in 1997 and 1999, respectively. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science and Engineering from Korea University. Also, he is currently a researcher in the Research Institute of Computer Science and Engineering Technology at Korea University. His research interests include mobile IP, PCS networks, and ad-hoc networks.Joon-Min Gil received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Computer Science from Korea University, Chochiwon, Korea in 1994 and 1996, respectively. He received his Ph.D. degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Korea University, Seoul, Korea in 2000. From 2001 to 2002, he was a visiting research associate in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago, U.S.A. He is currently a senior research engineer in Supercomputing Center at Korea Institute of Science & Technology Information, Daejeon, Korea. His recent research interests include distributed and mobile computing, wireless networks, Internet computing, P2P networks, and grid computing.Chong-Sun Hwang received his M.S. degree in Mathematics from Korea University, Seoul, Korea in 1970, and his Ph.D. degree in Statistics and Computer Science from the University of Georgia in 1978. From 1978 to 1980, he was an assistant professor at South Carolina Lander State University. He is currently a full professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Korea University, Seoul, Korea. Since 2004, he has been a Dean in the College of Information and Communications at Korea University. His research interests include distributed systems,distributed algorithm, and mobile computing systems     

Analysis of cost and quality of service of time-based dynamic mobility management in wireless networks

A key observation of a time-based location management scheme (TBLMS) is that the simple paging method (i.e., the fastest paging method) does not guarantee to find a mobile terminal, no matter how small the location update cycle is and how big the radius of a paging area (PA) is. Therefore, in addition to cost analysis and optimization, there is one extra issue to deal with in a TBLMS, i.e., the quality of service (QoS), which is the probability that a mobile terminal can be found in the current PA. The main contributions of the paper are as follows. First, based on our previous results on random walks among rings of cell structures, we analyze the location distribution of a mobile terminal in a PA and the reachability of a mobile terminal in a PA when a phone call arrives, where the inter-call time and the cell residence time can have an arbitrary probability distribution. Second, using results from renewal processes, we analyze the cost of dynamic mobility management in a TBLMS, where the inter-call time and the cell residence time can have an arbitrary probability distribution. Third, we develop a method to find a TBLMS which has the best combination of the location update cycle and the radius of a PA with the minimum cost of mobility management, while still satisfying the required QoS.     

Enhanced distance-based location management of mobile communication systems using a cell coordinates approach

In managing the locations of mobile users in mobile communication systems, the distance-based strategy has been proven to have better performance than other dynamic strategies, but is difficult to implement. A simple approach is introduced to implement the distance-based strategy by using the cell coordinates in calculating the physical distance traveled. This approach has the advantages of being independent of the size, shape, and distribution of cells, as well as catering for the direction of movement in addition to the speed of each mobile terminal. An enhanced distance-based location management strategy is proposed to dynamically adjust the size and shape of location area for each individual mobile terminal according to the current speed and direction of movement. It can reduce the location management signaling traffic of the distance-based strategy by half when mobile terminals have predictable directions of movement. Three types of location updating schemes are discussed, namely, Circular Location Area, Optimal Location Area, and Elliptic Location Area. Paging schemes using searching techniques such as expanding distance search based on the last reported location and based on the predicted location, and expanding direction search are also explored to further reduce paging signal traffic by partitioning location areas into paging areas.     

Numerical analysis of optimum timer value for time-based locationregistration scheme

In this letter, we analyze a time-based update method in location management and calculate the optimal time-interval. We obtain the probability that a mobile terminal (MT) is j rings away from the center cell. And using these values, an exact analysis is made for the time-based location management cost. From the result, when the time-based method is applied to location update, we can get the optimal time-interval which minimizes the location management cost     

低轨卫星系统中结合时间和移动的位置更新策略

低轨(LEO)卫星快速运动,移动终端(MT)相对于卫星的位置信息也在不断变化,如何有效地管理MT的位置信息,减小位置更新频率和寻呼开销是研究位置管理的主要目的。为此,提出一种低轨卫星系统中的动态位置管理策略,基于时间和移动相结合进行位置更新,在不增加寻呼开销的条件下,减小了位置更新频率,从而有效降低了位置管理的总开销。     

Determination of the Registration Point for Location Update by Dynamic Programming in PCS

Location management is important to effectively keep track of mobile terminals with reduced signal flows and database queries. Even though dynamic location management strategies are known to show good performance, we in this paper consider the static location management strategy which is easy to implement. A system with single home location register and pointer forwarding is assumed. A mobile terminal is assumed to have memory to store the IDs of visitor location registers (VLRs) each of which has the forwarding pointer to identify its current location. To obtain the registration point which minimizes the database access and signaling cost from the current time to the time of power-off probabilistic dynamic programming formulation is presented. A Selective Pointer Forwarding scheme is proposed which is based on one-step dynamic programming. The proposed location update scheme determines the least cost temporary VLR which point forwards the latest location of the mobile. The computational results show that the proposed scheme outperforms IS-41, pure Pointer Forwarding, and One-step Pointer Forwarding at the expense of small storage and a few computations at the mobile terminals.     

Group registration with local anchor for location tracking in mobile networks

In mobile networks, the location of a mobile user needs to be traced for successful and efficient call delivery. In existing cellular networks, as a mobile user changes his/her location area (LA), a location registration request is sent to the home location register (HLR) to update the user profile to point to the new LA. With a large number of mobile subscribers, this conventional registration strategy will incur a high volume of signaling traffic. We propose a new location registration strategy, called Group Registration (GR), which efficiently reduces the location registration cost by reporting location changes to the HLR for multiple mobile terminals (MTs) in a single location update request message. Specifically, the IDs of the MTs newly moving into an LA are buffered and sent to the HLR for location update in the route response message of the next incoming call to any MT in the LA. An analytic model is developed and numerical results are presented. It is shown that the proposed GR strategy can achieve significant cost reductions compared to the conventional strategy and the local anchor strategy over a wide range of system parameters. Moreover, the GR strategy results in a much smaller call delivery latency than the local anchor strategy.     

带门槛的环形搜索移动性管理策略中移动台所 越过的位置区环数

位置管理或移动性管理是移动计算研究领域的一个具有挑战性的问题.我国及其他国家目前正在使用的个人通信网络如GSM、IS-41中,用两层数据库HLR/VLR支持位置管理.在这些网络中,每当移动台从一个位置区LA(Location area)移动到另一个位置区,其基本的位置管理策略(简称"基本策略")不管是否必要均立即进行位置更新操作,因而造成系统资源的极大浪费,降低了系统的性能.本文给出一种带门槛的环形搜索策略(简称"门槛环形策略")——将位置区分成环,设定一个门槛(整数),当移动台越过的位置区的环数没有达到门槛时,系统不进行位置更新操作,以减少位置管理的费用.在假定移动台的呼入是一个泊松过程,移动台在各个位置区的逗留时间是符合一般概率分布的随机变量的条件下,推导出在两次呼入之间移动台处于各位置区环的概率及移动台所越过的位置区环数公式,给出了"门槛环形策略"的位置管理费用小于"基本策略"的条件.     

Dynamic model-based filtering for mobile terminal location estimation

Mobile terminal location is an important area of research because of its applications in location-sensitive browsing and resource allocation. The paper presents a method for reducing the error in mobile terminal location estimation. A preprocessor using nonparametric estimation is used to reduce the effects of non-line-of-sight and multipath propagation on the location procedure. A model-based dynamic filter is presented that uses an accurate model of mobile terminal motion to combine information from location measurements made at different time instances to create an improved location estimate. The model of mobile terminal motion has a kinematic state space model describing the physical rules governing terminal motion and a control model that describes the human control input into the motion process. Location dependency in the control input model is used to derive a new dynamic filter. This filter provides greatly improved accuracy over previously known location techniques and is much more robust to variations in the mobile terminal motion and nonlinear effects in the propagation environment.     

Movement-based location update and selective paging for PCSnetworks

This paper introduces a mobility tracking mechanism that combines a movement-based location update policy with a selective paging scheme. Movement-based location update is selected for its simplicity. It does not require each mobile terminal to store information about the arrangement and the distance relationship of all cells. In fact, each mobile terminal only keeps a counter of the number of cells visited. A location update is performed when this counter exceeds a predefined threshold value. This scheme allows the dynamic selection of the movement threshold on a per-user basis. This is desirable as different users may have very different mobility patterns. Selective paging reduces the cost for locating a mobile terminal in the expense of an increase in the paging delay. We propose a selective paging scheme which significantly decreases the location tracking cost under a small increase in the allowable paging delay. We introduce an analytical model for the proposed location tracking mechanism which captures the mobility and the incoming call arrival patterns of each mobile terminal. Analytical results are provided to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of the proposed scheme under various parameters     

Group deregistration strategy for PCS networks

This letter proposes a novel deregistration strategy-group deregistration-for PCS networks. In the proposed strategy, instead of deregistering a mobile terminal (MT) right after the MT leaves its registration area (RA), the home location register (HLR) keeps the MT's identification in a list associated with the RA. When the next registration from the RA arrives, the HLR sends the MT identification list to the RA along with the registration acknowledgment message. The RA then deregisters these MTs. Compared to the conventional deregistration strategy, the proposed strategy greatly reduces both the signaling traffic and the database load