Mobility management in wireless ATM networks

Mobile ATM offers a common wired network infrastructure to support mobility of wireless terminals, independent of the wireless access protocol. In addition, it allows seamless migration to future wireless broadband services, such as wireless ATM, by enabling mobility of end-to-end ATM connections. In spite of the diversity in mobile networking technologies (e.g., cellular telephony, mobile-IP, packet data services, PCS), all of them require two fundamental mechanisms: location management and handoff. This article describes different schemes for augmenting a wired ATM network to support location management of mobile terminals and handoff protocols for rerouting a connection data path when the endpoint moves. A prototype implementation of mobile ATM integrating mobility support with ATM signaling and connection setup, is presented. It shows how mobile ATM may be used to provide mobility support to an IP terminal using non-ATM wireless access     

Integrated Services over ATM/MAN-Based Personal Communication Networks

IEEE 802.6 metropolitan area networks (MANs) providean efficient architecture for supporting wirelesspersonal communication services (PCSs) overmetropolitan areas by interconnecting wireless basestations into personal communication networks (PCNs).They also serve as peripheral gathering networks totransport PCS traffic over a wide area broadbandintegrated services digital network employingasynchronous transfer mode (ATM), enabling integrationof PCNs in different cities into a global PCN. Bycombining the various access methods and employing adynamic bandwidth integration scheme, a MAN canfunction as a powerful distributed switch forintegrating different types of local traffic.Simulation results are presented to illustrate theadvantages of the integration scheme. To provideubiquitous PCS, we also propose a simplesuffix-dialing method for integrating telephone, fax,paging and email services over the ATM/MAN-based PCNsusing a single personal telecommunication number. Withthis method, the current practice of printing a longlist of phone numbers on one's business card will nolonger be necessary.     

Mobility management in integrated wireless-ATM networks

There is an emerging interest in integrating mobile wireless communication with Broadband ISDN based on the ATM technology. Many issues arise when such integration is attempted. This paper addresses the problem of mobility management, i.e., that of tracking the current ATM addresses of mobile terminals and sustaining active ATM connections as mobiles move. The paper presents some architectural options for integrating wireless access to ATM networks and highlights an architecture based oninterworking devices to provide transparent mobility support in existing ATM networks. Location management and handoff solutions for this architecture are then presented. Also, how procedures for multiprotocol transport over ATM networks may be adopted to perform location management is described.A version of this paper appeared in the proceedings of ACM Mobicom '95.     

Mobility management in current and future communications networks

This article describes current and proposed protocols for mobility management for public land mobile networks (PLMNs), Mobile IP, wireless ATM, and satellite networks. The integration of these networks is discussed in the context of the next evolutionary step of wireless communications networks. First, a review is provided of location management algorithms for PCS implemented over a PLMN. The latest protocol changes for location registration and handoff are investigated for Mobile IP, followed by a discussion of proposed protocols for wireless ATM and satellite networks. Finally, an outline of open problems to be addressed by the next generation of wireless network service is discussed     

Mobility management in next-generation wireless systems

This paper describes current and proposed protocols for mobility management for public land mobile network (PLMN)-based networks, mobile Internet protocol (IP) wireless asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) and satellite networks. The integration of these networks will be discussed in the context of the next evolutionary step of wireless communication networks. First, a review is provided of location management algorithms for personal communication systems (PCS) implemented over a PLMN network. The latest protocol changes for location registration and handoff are investigated for mobile IP followed by a discussion of proposed protocols for wireless ATM and satellite networks. Finally, an outline of open problems to be addressed by the next generation of wireless network service is discussed     

A distributed control strategy for wireless ATM networks

Cellular networks are expected to be upgraded to offer Personal Communication Services (PCS). The mobility management and wireless call control approach used in cellular networks are currently being proposed for use in PCS networks. Recent work indicates that both the signaling load and database update rates caused by these mobility management and call control procedures will increase significantly in next generation PCS networks. In this paper, we propose and analyze a new cluster-based architecture and define algorithms to effectively handle mobility management and call control functions for PCS. We assume an ATM network infrastructure. Some of the key aspects of our proposal include simplifying the mobile location and tracking function, performing connection setup in segments, eliminating the need for user service profile downloads between networks, and more efficient routing of connections by removing the need for an anchor switch. Advantages of this approach include a reduction in signaling traffic load, improved call/connection setup delays, and more efficient routing of connections. We carry out an analysis of our solution for high-tier PCS applications.     

A signaling and control architecture for mobility support in wireless ATM networks

This paper presents a signaling and control architecture for mobility support in a wireless ATM network that provides integrated broadband services to mobile terminals. A system level protocol architecture for a wireless ATM network is outlined. The proposed protocol stack incorporates new wireless link MAC, DLC and wireless control sublayers, together with appropriate mobility extensions to the existing ATM network control layer. Wireless control and ATM signaling capabilities required for mobility support are discussed, and preliminary solutions are given for selected major functions. Potential extensions to standard Q.2931 ATM signaling are proposed to support handoff and service parameter/QoS renegotiation required for mobility. An associated wireless control protocol for supporting terminal migration, resource allocation, and handoff is discussed. Preliminary experimental results are given which validate the proposed handoff control protocol on an ATM network testbed.     

Signaling alternatives in a wireless ATM network

The world of wireless telecommunications is rapidly changing. The capabilities of wireless networks are improving at a steady pace. This paper presents two possible protocols for implementing mobility for wireless users in an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) network. The vision of the authors is of one “wireless ATM telecommunications network” that is capable of supporting a variety of today's applications with room to grow for advanced applications of the future. We first visit database architectures that can support mobility in a wireless ATM network. We then discuss one of two signaling architecture alternatives, the “overlay signaling”, for overlay support of mobile users in the ATM-based wireless telecommunications network. “Overlay signaling” aims at minimizing the modification needed to the existing ATM protocols. We then describe a native “migratory signaling” approach that further integrates wireless and wireline users into one global wireless ATM network at the expense of requiring some modifications to the existing ATM protocols. A performance analysis of the proposed signaling architecture alternatives is also presented. We conclude by pointing out some challenges in merging ATM with wireless telecommunications     

Ethernet services over mobile WiMAX

Ethernet services represent a steadily growing portion of the fixed telecommunication market. To enable the provisioning of Ethernet services over IEEE 802.16e, the mobile WiMAX network architecture supports transparent Ethernet transport as an optional extension to the IP services architecture. Ethernet support is tightly aligned to the IP services network model, and leverages many data path and control plane functions from its IP sibling to keep the implementation and operation overhead low for the Ethernet extension. Mobile WiMAX provides IP services as well as Ethernet services over the same mobile access network. The intrinsic mobility support may create new deployment opportunities for Ethernet services. Initially, the Ethernet extension may be mostly used to realize wireless access for DSL networks based on the same network interfaces defined for the wired Ethernet-based DSL aggregation.     

Virtual tree‐based multicast routing with a distributed numbering algorithm for WM‐ATM handover

The flexibility offered by the ATM transport mechanism and its potential capabilities, together with its compatibility with the B‐ISDN, makes ATM the prime candidate for the support of multimedia services over the wireless medium. However, technical issues remain to be resolved in relation to the feasibility of ATM for the support of mobility over the radio interface. This paper examines network issues in supporting handover in a wireless ATM network. In particular, analysis has been performed for a virtual tree-based network architecture. Results have shown that by using multicast transmission and by using a distributed numbering algorithm, the potential problems of cell-loss and cell-duplication have been eliminated. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Personal communications services through the evolution of fixed andmobile communications and the intelligent network concept

New telecommunications services tend to consider fixed network subscribers' requirements as well as mobile network subscribers' requirements. On one hand, subscribers of fixed networks would like to benefit from the mobility offered in mobile networks. On the other hand, mobile subscribers would like to access to services inherent in fixed networks. Personal communications services (PCS) meet this trend while allowing fixed and mobile convergence. In this environment, the application of intelligent networks (INs) to fixed and mobile networks is very convenient to realize PCS. Thus, the natural advancement of telecommunications systems (fixed and mobile) consists in the definition of new telecommunications architectures which take into account technologies from both fixed and mobile environments. This article studies how the IN is used to support mobility and interworking for PCS. Although mobility management already exists in cellular networks like GSM, it is desirable to use the IN concept to introduce flexibility. In addition, the IN allows the introduction of new supplementary services in PCS. Furthermore, the IN concept can be utilized to provide necessary networking functions for the integration of fixed and mobile networks. This article also highlights the involvement of IN in the definition of the global communications systems such as Telecommunication Information Networking Architecture (TINA), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), and International Mobile Telecommunications in the year 2000 (IMT2000)     

Internetworking based on cell switch router-architecture andprotocol overview

This paper describes an internetworking architecture and related protocol overview based on routers that have asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) cell switching capability in addition to conventional Internet protocol (IP) packet forwarding. The proposed architecture can provide high-throughput and low-latency switched paths for individual application flows or a group of application flows while retaining current router-based internetworking architecture. The proposed router is able to establish the switched path based on the characteristics of flows, e.g., arrival of a data packet with specific upper layer protocols or arrival of more than a certain amount of data packets in a predetermined period, as well as by the reception of an IP-layer resource reservation request, such as resource reservation protocol (RSVP). One important feature that is provided by the proposed router is interoperability with the emerging ATM network platform specified by the ATM Forum and the telecommunications sector of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU-T). The proposed routers can be interconnected with each other over the point-to-point synchronous optical network link as well as over the ATM network platform, which provides permanent virtual channel, virtual path, or switched virtual channel (SVC) services. That enables network carriers to provide Internet/intranet services as well as others, such as telephony, ATM/time division multiplexing leased line, or native ATM SVC services     

Distributed call processing for personal communications services

The authors present a control architecture, procedures, and a signaling system to support advanced personal communication services (PCS). They describe the current cellular system architecture, and its algorithms and data management schemes for providing services. They present review how current cellular systems operate with a focus on mobility management and call and connection control. The benefits of this architecture include lower signaling traffic over wireless links, lower network load for signaling traffic, low call/connection delivery times, ubiquitous service offering, and more efficient routing of connections     

Connection Admission Control for PCS-to-Internet Protocol Internetworking

This paper studies the connection admission control for PCS-to-Internet protocol internetworking. In order to provide QoS to the Internet and avoid scalability problems, several recent papers proposed endpoint measurement-based admission control (EMAC) schemes, in which admission decisions are based on measurement results from probe packets exchanged between end hosts. Although EMAC has many desirable features in the wireline networks as shown in previous work, we show in this paper that several distinct characteristics in mobile wireless networks, such as low bandwidth, user mobility, and high bit error rate, make EMAC difficult to implement. Observing that networks offering 3rd-generation (3G) personal communication service (PCS), such as UMTS, already incorporate their own connection admission control functions, we propose a mobile-EMAC (M-EMAC) scheme for PCS-to-IP internetworking. Simulation results show that M-EMAC outperforms EMAC in the wireless domain by improving channel utilization while reducing packet losses.     

Mobility modeling, location tracking, and trajectory prediction inwireless ATM networks

Wireless ATM networks require efficient mobility management to cope with frequent mobile handoff and rerouting of connections. Although much attention has been given in the literature to network architecture design to support wide-area mobility in public ATM networks, little has been done to the important issue of user mobility estimation and prediction to improve the connection reliability and bandwidth efficiency of the underlying system architecture. This paper treats the problem by developing a hierarchical user mobility model that closely represents the movement behavior of a mobile user, and that, when used with appropriate pattern matching and Kalman filtering techniques, yields an accurate location prediction algorithm, HLP, or hierarchical location prediction, which provides necessary information for advance resource reservation and advance optimal route establishment in wireless ATM networks     

ATM-based TH-SSMA network for multimedia PCS

Personal communications services (PCS) promise to provide a variety of information exchanges among users with any type of mobility, at any time, in any place, through any available device. To achieve this ambitious goal, two of the major challenges in the system design are: (i) to provide a high-speed wireless subsystem with large capacity and acceptable quality-of-service (QoS) and (ii) to design a network architecture capable of supporting multimedia traffic and various kinds of user mobility. A time-hopping spread-spectrum wireless communication system called ultra-wide bandwidth (UWB) radio is used to provide communications that are low power, high data rate, fade resistant, and relatively shadow free in a dense multipath environment. Receiver-signal processing of UWB radio is described, and performance of such communications systems, in terms of multiple-access capability, is estimated under ideal multiple-access channel conditions. A UWB-signal propagation experiment is performed using the bandwidth in excess of 1 GHz in a typical modern office building in order to characterize the UWB-signal propagation channel. The experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of the UWB radio and its robustness in a dense multipath environment. A ATM network is used as the backbone network due to its high bandwidth, fast switching capability, flexibility, and well-developed infrastructure. To minimize the impact caused by user mobility on the system performance, a hierarchical network-control architecture is postulated. A wireless virtual circuit (WVC) concept is proposed to improve the transmission efficiency and simplify the network control in the wireless subsystem. The key advantage of this network architecture and WVC concept is that the handoff can be done locally most of the time, due to the localized behavior of PCS users     

Seamless Support for Mobile Internet Protocol Based Cellular Environments

Cellular is the inevitable architecture for the Personal Communication Service system (PCS) in the coming future. Access to the Internet via cellular networks is expected to become an essential portion of future wireless service offerings. Providing seamless support for IP based packet switched services has become an important issue.The Internet Engineering Task Force's (IETF's) mobile IP protocol offers a standard solution for wide-area mobility at the IP layer. However, Mobile IP does not solve all of the problems involved in providing mobile Internet access to cellular users, especially during handoff period. Thus, IPv6 might be a good candidate to solve this problem.IPv6 is a new version of the Internet Protocol that was standardized by the IETF. It supports mobility and is presently being standardized by the IETF Mobile IP Working Group. At the same time, cellular is an inevitable architecture for the Personal Communication Service system (PCS).This paper introduces the current cellular support based on the Mobile Internet Protocol version 6. We will point out the short-falls using Mobile IP and try to emphasize protocols especially for mobile management schemes that can optimize a high speed mobile station moving among small wireless cells. A comparison between those schemes and future work will be presented.     

Network architecture and traffic transport for integrated wireless communications over enterprise networks

A novel network architecture based on the IEEE 802.6 metropolitan area networks (MAN) is proposed to integrate the wireless and wired segments of a regional enterprise network (REN) within a city. This architecture functions like a distributed switch for all types of services, reducing traffic congestion by sharing the high capacity link dynamically and facilitating signaling, mobility management, call processing and network management through its distributed functions, transport facilities and broadcasting capability. It also serves as a peripheral gathering network of REN traffic for transport over a wide area ATM/BISDN, enabling integration of an enterprise's regional networks into a global EN. Two major wireless applications, i.e., wireless PABX (WPABX) and wireless LAN (WLAN) are discussed to illustrate the advantages of this MAN‐based architecture. Although a REN is likely to support a wide range of different services, voice and data will continue to be the predominant traffic generated by WPABXs and WLANs, respectively, and are also representative of isochronous and asynchronous multimedia traffic carried by future wireless networks. We compare the traffic capacity of several voice transport alternatives under integrated (voice/data) network traffic with various data traffic loads, and study voice and data integration under three different integration schemes by simulations. Results indicate that the MAN‐based architecture is most effective employing queue arbitrated (QA) access for asynchronous traffic, pre‐arbitrated access for constant bit‐rate isochronous traffic, and the new reservation arbitrated (RA) access for variable bit‐rate isochronous traffic, under a scheme that permits full sharing between QA and RA traffic. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

IP/ATM integrated services over broadband access coppertechnologies

A rich set of broadband access copper technologies is available in the market today, and more are coming out of the laboratories, rapidly moving to standardization. The most likely future scenario will be one where many different technologies coexist. This multi-access-technology paradigm poses an interesting internetworking problem where interoperability and capability to support today's and future user services play a major role in the design of a network architecture. This article begins with an overview of current and new xDSL access technologies to continue describing an access network design that harmonizes the interconnection between PON, xDSL, and native ATM transport technologies. The use of ATM technology for the interface to the broadband access and transport networks is then presented and justified. The article continues studying the protocol architectures proposed for access to network service providers, considered a driver application for broadband access deployment. Finally, different protocol architectures that can provide integrated services support at the user equipment are analyzed     

RSVP extensions for real-time services in wireless mobile networks

Currently, the RSVP model, which is efficient resource reservation in the fixed endpoints, becomes invalid under host mobility. We investigate the problems of standard RSVP in providing real-time services in wireless mobile networks. We also observe carefully how to interoperate IntServ services over DiffServ networks, and how to map IntServ QoS parameters into a wireless link. We then identify the advantages and drawbacks of the existing RSVP proposals to support QoS under both micromobility and macromobility. We finally propose a dynamic resource allocation scheme for reducing service disruption of real-time applications due to frequent mobility of a host