Stochastic control of path optimization for inter-switch handoffsin wireless ATM networks

One of the major design issues in wireless ATM networks is the support of inter-switch handoffs. An inter-switch handoff occurs when a mobile terminal moves to a new base station connecting to a different switch. Apart from resource allocation at the new base station, inter-switch handoff also requires connection rerouting. With the aim of minimizing the handoff delay while using the network resources efficiently, the two-phase handoff protocol uses path extension for each inter-switch handoff, followed by path optimization if necessary. The objective of this paper is to determine when and how often path optimization should be performed. The problem is formulated as a semi-Markov decision process. Link cost and signaling cost functions are introduced to capture the tradeoff between the network resources utilized by a connection and the signaling and processing load incurred on the network. The time between inter-switch handoffs follows a general distribution. A stationary optimal policy is obtained when the call termination time is exponentially distributed. Numerical results show significant improvement over four other heuristics     

Immune optimization algorithm for solving vertical handoff decision problem in heterogeneous wireless network

In heterogeneous wireless network environment, wireless local area network (WLAN) is usually deployed within the coverage of a cellular network to provide users with the convenience of seamless roaming among heterogeneous wireless access networks. Vertical handoffs between the WLAN and the cellular network maybe occur frequently. As for the vertical handoff performance, there is a critical requirement for developing algorithms for connection management and optimal resource allocation for seamless mobility. In this paper, we develop a mathematical model for vertical handoff decision problem, and propose a multi-objective optimization immune algorithm-based vertical handoff decision scheme. The proposed scheme can enable a wireless access network not only to balance the overall load among all base stations and access points but also maximize the collective battery lifetime of mobile terminals. Results based on a detailed performance evaluation study are also presented here to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed scheme.     

Design of an ATM switch for handoff support

In a wireless ATM system, a network must provide seamless services to mobile users. To support this, mobility function should be added to existing ATM networks. Through a handoff operation, a mobile user can receive a service from the network without disconnecting the communication. A handoff results in connection path rerouting during an active connection. To avoid cell loss during a handoff, cell buffering and rerouting are required in the network. A handoff switch is a connection breakdown point on an original connection path in the network from which a new connection sub‐path is established. It performs cell buffering and rerouting during a handoff. Cell buffering and rerouting can introduce a cell out‐of‐sequence problem. In this paper we propose a handoff switch architecture with a shared memory. The architecture performs cell buffering and rerouting efficiently by managing logical queues of virtual connections in the shared memory and sorting head‐of‐line cells for transmission, thus achieving in‐sequence cell delivery during a handoff. We also present simulation results to understand the impacts of handoffs on switch performance. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Adaptive resource allocation for prioritized call admission over anATM-based wireless PCN

In future personal communications networks (PCNs) supporting network-wide handoffs, new and handoff requests will compete for connection resources in both the mobile and backbone networks. Forced call terminations due to handoff call blocking are generally more objectionable than new call blocking. The previously proposed guard channel scheme for radio channel allocation in cellular networks reduces handoff call blocking probability substantially at the expense of slight increases in new call blocking probability by giving resource access priority to handoff calls over new calls in call admission control. While the effectiveness of a fixed number of guard channels has been demonstrated under stationary traffic conditions, with nonstationary call arrival rates in a practical system, the achieved handoff call blocking probability may deviate significantly from the desired objective. We propose a novel dynamic guard channel scheme which adapts the number of guard channels in each cell according to the current estimate of the handoff call arrival rate derived from the current number of ongoing calls in neighboring cells and the mobility pattern, so as to keep the handoff call blocking probability close to the targeted objective while constraining the new call blocking probability to be below a given level. The proposed scheme is applicable to channel allocation over cellular mobile networks, and is extended to bandwidth allocation over the backbone network to enable a unified approach to prioritized call admission control over the ATM-based PCN     

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.     

A Fast Handoff Management Scheme in ATM-Based Personal Communication Networks

Future wireless personal communication networks will likely have infrastructures based on asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networks. It is a challenge to support seamless, fast handoffs in such an environment. We propose a fast handoff management scheme using permanent virtual connections (PVCs) reserved between neighboring base stations (BSs). In the proposed scheme, the handoff can be quickly performed by rerouting the communication path via the PVCs. Handoff calls are distributively controlled only by the corresponding BSs without the involvement of any ATM switches. ATM cell sequence integrity during handoff can be maintained by the BSs. In order to dimension the PVC, we analytically derive the probability of handoff blocking due to the lack of PVCs. We give some numerical examples of PVC dimensioning. The proposed scheme can be utilized in the future IMT-2000 networks accommodating various narrowband services in the range of several kbps to several hundreds kbps.     

Mobility and connection management in a wireless ATM LAN

This paper proposes algorithms for handoff, location, and connection management in a wireless asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) local-area network (LAN). Fast handoffs while maintaining cell sequence and quality-of-service (QoS) guarantees are achieved by distributing switching functionality to base stations, and using a networking scheme based on provisioned virtual trees. A new distributed location management scheme using a minimal registration procedure and broadcasts on wired links is proposed for this LAN. The detailed signaling procedures that support the algorithms for mobility and connection management are described. Finally, an implementation of these procedures and an analysis of the measured data is presented. Measurements of service times obtained from this implementation indicate that over 100 calls/s. can be handled by each node in 50-node network with a high-percentage of mobiles (75%) relative to fixed endpoints. This is comparable to current wired ATM switch call handling throughputs, in spite of the fact that these nodes perform additional handoff and location management functions. The data also indicates handoff latency times of 1.3 ms. This validates our proposal for maintaining cell sequence while performing handoffs     

Organizing reserve channels for superior admission control performance

Good execution of seamless handoffs is key to the quality of service perceived by mobile service subscribers. Giving priority to handoff requests is a strategy commonly considered to guarantee low connection loss when performing handoffs. Often, priority systems can be implemented by adopting a pool of reserved (or guard) resources that is available only for calls or transactions being handed over. Most studies published thus far consider that fixed allocation of the guard resources is being employed. This work considers sharing the reserve channels among cells through the use of a particular method of dynamic resource allocation (DRA). It is shown here that the use of DRA on the pool of guard channels affords a great reduction in the probability of handoff failure without affecting the value of the new call blocking probability, thereby improving the quality of service provided by the cellular operator and also increasing system utilization.     

基于无线ATM的快速切换管理新方案

未来的移动通信网应发展成以异步传模式（ＡＴＭ） 为基础,支持多媒体业务的网络。为了在这种环境下实现无缝隙、快速切换,提出了在相邻基站间备用永久虚连接（ＰＶＣ） 的一种快速切换管理方案,并计算了给定ＰＶＣ 带宽时的切换阻塞概率。本方案与Ａｃａｍ ｐｏｒａ 的虚连接树（ＶＣＴ） 相比,有效地节省了有线链路资源,并在切换过程中保持本地小区序列的完整性     

An architecture and methodology for mobile-executed handoff incellular ATM networks

An architecture is presented for a high-speed cellular radio access network based on ATM transport technology. Central to this approach is a new concept known as the virtual connection tree which avoids the need to involve the network call processor for every cell handoff attempt. Such an approach can readily support a very high rate of handoffs, thereby enabling use of physically small radio cells to provide very high system capacity, but may occasionally cause the volume of traffic to be handled by one cell site to exceed that cell site's capacity. A simple analytical methodology is developed which can be used for admission control, the purpose of which is to limit the number of in-progress calls such that two new quality of service metrics (overload probability and average time in overload) can be kept suitably low. Finally, a general framework is presented for overall system organization and signaling     

异步转移模式（ATM）的研究现状与前景

ＡＴＭ是实现宽带综合业务数字网（Ｂ－ＩＳＤＮ）关键技术之一。本文综述了ＡＴＭ近几年来在网路控制、业务模型、资源分配、允许接入控制、流量控制以及选路控制等诸多方面的研究进展与存在问题，并提出了实现ＡＴＭ综合多种业务与有效利用网路资源这一目标的途径。     

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     

Multicasting with selective delivery: a SafetyNet for vertical handoffs

In the future, mobility support will require handling roaming in heterogeneous access networks. In order to enable seamless roaming it is necessary to minimize the impact of the vertical handoffs. Localized mobility management schemes such as Fast Handovers for Mobile IPv6 (FMIPv6) and Hierarchical Mobile IPv6 do not provide sufficient handoff performance, since they have been designed for horizontal handoffs. In this paper, we propose the SafetyNet protocol, which allows a Mobile Node to perform seamless vertical handoffs. Further, we propose the SafetyNet handoff timing algorithm, to enable a Mobile Node to delay or even completely avoid upward vertical handoffs. We implement the SafetyNet protocol and compare its performance with the FMIPv6 protocol in our wireless test bed and analyze the results. The experimental results indicate that the proposed SafetyNet protocol can provide an improvement of up to 95% for TCP performance in vertical handoffs, when compared with FMIPv6 and an improvement of 64% over FMIPv6 with bicasting. We use numerical analysis of the protocol to show that its over the air signaling and data transmission overhead is comparable to FMIPv6 and significantly smaller than that of FMIPv6 with bicasting.     

Resource Allocation for Aggregate Multimedia and Healthcare Services over Heterogeneous Multi-Hop Wireless Networks

Nowadays, the pervasive wireless networks enable ubiquitous high-rate wireless access from everywhere. In this work, we discuss the integration of complementary wireless techniques to construct a personal moving network. The personal wireless devices (  smartphones, camcorders, and netbooks) and even medical monitoring sensors are interconnected with a wide-area backbone through a local multi-mode gateway. The mobile nodes in a personal moving network move in group and are provided seamless connectivity through a backhaul relay channel from the local gateway toward the backbone network. In some specific scenarios, the local gateway can be as simple as a multi-radio smartphone. In this study, we investigate the construction and resource allocation for a personal moving network. Aggregate multi-service traffic of interactive data, conversational video, and electrocardiography (ECG) monitoring are considered in the resource allocation. We develop a stochastic Petri net to model the access selection scheme, which is logically clear and easy to follow. The flow-level performance is evaluated in terms of new connection blocking probability and handoff dropping probability. We further analyze the packet-level performance of the heterogeneous two-hop network. Considering the urgency of medical services, a non-preemptive priority policy is applied to mitigate the impact of background traffic and prioritize the transmission of ECG data.     

Route optimization in mobile ATM networks

This paper presents an algorithm for optimizing the route of a connection that becomes suboptimal due to operations such as handoffs and location-based reroutes, and applies this algorithm to the handoff management problem in mobile ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) networks based on the PNNI (Private Network-to-Network Interface) standard. The route optimization algorithm uses hierarchical route information of the connection and summarized topology and loading information of the network to determine a “crossover node” such that adjusting the connection from that crossover node results in an optimally routed connection. Handoff management schemes that perform local rerouting of connections have been proposed in order to support fast handoffs. These methods result in suboptimally routed connections. In this paper, we demonstrate how this route optimization algorithm can be used to optimize the route of a connection after such a handoff is executed, as the second phase of a two-phase handoff scheme. This route optimization procedure can also be executed as part of the handoff procedure resulting in a one-phase handoff scheme. Applying this route optimization algorithm, we propose two one-phase schemes, the one-phase optimal scheme and the one-phase minimal scheme. A comparative performance analysis of one- and two-phase handoff schemes is presented. Measures of comparison are handoff latency and the amount of network resources used by a connection. Handoff latency in the one-phase optimal scheme is greater than that in the two-phase schemes, and handoff latency in the one-phase minimal scheme is smaller than that in the two-phase schemes. The one-phase methods show a significant increase in efficiency of the connection compared to the two-phase methods. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Bandwidth allocation and connection admission control in ATMnetworks

Asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) is the transmission format for almost all future communication networks, including broadband integrated services digital networks (B-ISDN). The key feature of ATM is its high flexibility in bandwidth allocation. Instead of reserving capacity for each connection, the bandwidth is allocated on demand. As a consequence, packets (called cells in ATM terminology) might be lost. To guarantee a given quality of service (QoS), some kind of control is needed to decide whether to accept or to reject an incoming connection. A connection is accepted only if the network has sufficient resources to achieve the QoS required by the user without affecting the QoS of the existing connections. In ATM networks, connection admission control (CAC) is responsible for this decision. It is a very complex function because the traffic may vary greatly and have poorly known characteristics. This paper describes CAC procedures proposed in the literature and discusses issues related to bandwidth allocation in ATM networks. It shows that CAC and statistical multiplexing are only needed for certain connections     

Dynamic connection rerouting and wired‐resource reservation scheme on ATM‐based PCN

In this paper, we propose a connection rerouting and dynamic resource reservation scheme for fast inter-switch handoffs on ATM-based personal communications networks. The proposed rerouting and reservation scheme can reduce the delay in connection rerouting by reserving VPI/VCIs for possible inter-switch handoff calls in advance. It also improves the utilization of wired resources by reserving statistically the wired resources in separate ways according to the classes (i.e., real-time vs. non-real-time traffic) of possible inter-switch handoff calls. Our simulation results show that the proposed scheme can decrease the dropping rate of inter-switch handoff calls without the sacrifice of the blocking probability of new calls and, moreover, can flexibly cope with the time-variant environment. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A framework of handoffs in wireless overlay networks based on mobile IPv6

Although there are various wireless access network technologies with different characteristics and performance level have been developed, no single network that can satisfy the anytime, anywhere, and any service wireless access needs of mobile users. A truly seamless mobile environment can only be realized by considering vertical and horizontal handoffs together. With the advantages of Mobile IPv6, a more comprehensive and integrated framework of heterogeneous networks can be developed. In this paper, we discuss the issues related to handoffs including horizontal and vertical handoffs. We present a scheme for integrating wireless local area network and wide area access networks, and propose a micromobility management method called HiMIPv6+. We also propose a QoS-based (quality-of-service-based) vertical handoff scheme and algorithm that consider wireless network transport capacity and user service requirement. Our prototype evaluations and the simulations show that our framework performs as expected.     

Mobility management and control protocol for wireless ATM networks

The introduction of wireless ATM (WATM) in customer premises network environments necessitates the design of mobility protocols, since the existing versions of B-ISDN signaling do not support terminal mobility. Such protocols can be deployed either as extensions to the standard signaling capabilities, or as individual solutions that have little or no impact on existing infrastructures (switches, signaling software, etc.). A WATM architecture that adopts the latter approach is presented. After a discussion of the problems encountered in the integration of wireless networking and B-ISDN ATM technologies, a mobility management and control (MMC) protocol is proposed. Finally, in the framework of the proposed MMC protocol, algorithms for implementing mobility procedures (handover and registration) are described     

基于ATM的CSCW组通信的体系结构

高性能的ＣＳＣＷ应用是各类ＣＳＣＷ应用中最复杂的一类。它不仅要求多点之间多媒体信息的实时传输,还要求的控制及管理功能。本文给出一种新的基本ＡＴＭ匠高性能ＣＳＣＷ多媒体通信的体系结构。