Performance Improvements of Mobile SCTP in Integrated Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

The complementary characteristics of cellular networks and wireless local area networks (WLANs) make it attractive to integrate these two technologies. In this integrated heterogeneous environment, mobile stream control transmission protocol (MSCTP) is ideal to support vertical handover (VHO) between them by enabling a mobile client to freely switch between IP addresses acquired in different networks. In this paper, we show that the MSCTP-based VHO scheme suffers from poor throughput performance during WLAN to cellular forced VHOs. We propose a novel error recovery scheme called Sending-buffer Multicast-Aided Retransmission with Fast Retransmission (SMART-FRX) to improve performance during VHO by multicasting the buffered and new data over both WLAN and cellular links when handover losses occur. In addition, we propose a new analytical model for SCTP that takes into account the congestion window, the round trip time, the slow-start and congestion avoidance processes. By comparing numerical results from the proposed analytical model with simulation results, we demonstrate that our analytical model is able to predict the SCTP throughput accurately, with or without the SMART-FRX scheme. The analytical model provides a useful tool that can be extended to study the performance of SCTP in other applications. Analytical and simulation results show that the proposed SMART-FRX scheme can improve the SCTP throughput performance significantly in WLAN to cellular forced VHO situations.     

A middleware architecture supporting seamless and secure multimedia services across an intertechnology radio access network - seamless content delivery in the future mobile internet

This article presents a middleware architecture to support multimedia services across intertechnology radio access networks in a secure and seamless manner. The proposed architecture uses the media-independent handover framework, where the handover decision function is based on triggering/collecting statistics from the physical, network, and application layers so that an ongoing multimedia session (video) can be transferred seamlessly and securely (using context transfer) across intertechnology radio access networks. Simulation results show that when a vertical handover is based on the proposed MIH framework (including the context transfer of AAA information), handover latency is reduced by 38 percent during WiFi to UMTS handover and 20 percent during UMTS to WiFi handover compared to a non-MIH-based handover scheme.     

Hybrid coupling scheme for UMTS and wireless LAN interworking

We propose a hybrid coupling scheme to support interworking between UMTS and WLAN networks. Under the Tight-coupled system, it is expected that WLAN users can also use UMTS services with guaranteed QoS and seamless mobility. However, the interworking is problematic. The capacity of UMTS core network nodes cannot accommodate the bulky data traffic from WLAN, since the core network nodes are designed to handle the small-sized data of circuit voice calls or short packets. The proposed coupling scheme differentiates the data paths according to the type of the traffic and can accommodate traffic from WLAN efficiently, with guaranteed QoS and seamless mobility. We compare the handover procedures of the proposed coupling strategy with those of the loose and tight coupled schemes. In addition, we analyze the delay based on signaling costs during vertical handover. It is shown that the handover latency decreases when the UMTS and WLAN are coupled in the proposed way.     

SCTP在无线网络上的最佳协议参数配置分析

本文研究了在WLAN、GPRS、UMTS这3种无线网络上运行流控制传输协议(SCTP)时,不同的协议参数配置对系统传输性能的影响。文中找出了达到最大系统传输性能时的SCTP协议参数设置,从而解决了符合IETF-RFC2960的SCTP应用于无线网络上协议最佳参数选择的关键问题。理论分析和仿真结果表明,运行于无线网络上时,采用了最佳参数配置的SCTP协议传输性能明显地高于采用传统参数配置的SCTP协议。     

Prediction-based secured handover authentication for mobile cloud computing

Mobile cloud computing (MCC) is a new technology that brings cloud computing and mobile networks together. It enhances the quality of service delivered to mobile clients, network operators, and cloud providers. Security in MCC technology, particularly authentication during the handover process, is a big challenge. Current vertical handover authentication protocols encounter different problems such as undesirable delays in real-time applications, the man in the middle attack, and replay attack. In this paper, a new authentication protocol for heterogeneous IEEE 802.11/LTE-A mobile cloud networks are proposed. The proposed protocol is mainly based on the view of the 3GPP access network discovery and selection function, which uses the capacities given by the IEEE 802.11 and the 3GPP long term evolution-advanced (LTE-A) standards interconnection. A prediction scheme, with no additional load over the network, or the user is utilized to handle cloud computing issues arising during authentication in the handover process. The proposed handover authentication protocol outperformed existing protocols in terms of key confidentiality, powerful security, and efficiency which was used to reduce bandwidth consumption.

     

Vertical Handover Over Intermediate Switching Framework: Assuring Service Quality for Mobile Users

Ensuring quality of service (QoS) for the mobile users during vertical handover between IEEE 802.11 wireless local area networks (WLAN) and data network provided by Ultramodern Telecommunication Systems (UMTS) is one of the key requirements for seamless mobility and transfer of existing connections from one network to another. QoS fulfillment is a complex problem and requires participation of both the mobile users as well as the connection networks. The QoS assurance criteria for existing connections can be affected by fluctuations of data rates when a user moves from the high speed WLAN network to the low speed UMTS network, even in the presence of another WLAN network in its vicinity. This can happen if the alternate WLAN network is highly loaded. Therefore handover from a high speed network to a low speed network should be avoided, whenever possible. This paper proposes a QoS based handover procedure that prioritizes the existing connection over the new connections so that rate fluctuations due to handover can be avoided if there exist another WLAN network in the range of the mobile user. Whenever the possibility of handover is detected, a pre-handover bandwidth reservation technique is used to reserve bandwidth at the alternate WLAN networks to avoid QoS degradation. The proposed scheme is implemented in Qualnet network simulator and the performance is analyzed and compared with traditional handover techniques.     

mSCTP协议异构网络切换性能评估

在RFC 5061中,提出了一种对SCTP协议的扩展,采用地址动态重配置的方法,解决了现在网络设备IP地址不断变化的问题。RFC 5061的推出促进了SCTP协议在移动网络无缝漫游解决方案中的应用。在本文中,测试了SCTP和mSCTP协议的切换时延,验证了mSCTP在无缝切换中应用的可行性。切换的场景包括移动终端的慢速移动和快速移动两种情况。     

基于媒体独立切换并提供QoS保证的跨UMTS和WiMAX无线异构网络的网络切换方案

The rapid growth and innovation of the various mobile communication technologies have caused a change in the paradigm of internet access. Wireless technologies such as WiMAX, WiFi and UMTS/LTE networks have shown great potential in dominating the wireless access markets. The existence of various access technologies requires a means for seamless internetworking to provide anywhere, anytime services without interruption in the ongoing session, especially in multimedia applications with rigid Quality of Services (QoS) requirements. The IEEE 802.21 Media Independent Handover (MIH) working group was formed to develop a set of mechanisms under a standard framework with the capability to support migration of mobile users across heterogeneous networks. Therefore, the implementation of handover is extremely important in the heterogeneous network environment. In order to guarantee various QoS requirements during handover execution especially in multimedia applications, in this paper we propose a novel MIH-based capacity estimation algorithm to execute handover with QoS provision supporting both horizontal and vertical handovers across UMTS and WiMAX networks. Simulation shows that the proposed mechanism achieves lower call dropping rate (highest approximate 3% ) and higher system throughput (average 92% ) than the basic handover method does.     

一种基于上下文感知的垂直切换技术研究

未来网络的发展趋势是各种无线接入网络共存的异构网络环境,而垂直切换技术是融合多个异构接入网络的关键技术之一,垂直切换包括三个阶段,即系统发现、切换决策和切换执行。文中主要研究了基于上下文感知的垂直切换判决策略,并与移动垂直切换技术相结合,实现了WLAN/UMTS网络间的垂直切换,通过仿真表明该方法在吞吐量和切换时延方面都得到改善。     

New efficient cross‐layer and multihoming mechanisms at layer 2 for inter‐radio access technology handover between UMTS and WiMAX

Next generation mobile networks will provide seamless mobility between existing cellular systems and other wireless access technologies. To realize a seamless vertical handover (inter‐radio access technology handover) among these different access technologies, a multi‐interfaced mobile station (i.e., multihomed) is a good approach to provide better handover performance in terms of packet loss rate and handover latency. In this article, we propose a novel layer 2 multihoming approach for inter‐radio access technology handover between Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) and Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) in both integrated and tight coupling architectures. This layer 2 multihoming approach has the ability of enabling either soft handover or make‐before‐break handover to adapt to mobility scenarios for the sake of a lossless and short latency handover procedure. Our simulation results show that, in case of handover from UMTS to WiMAX for transmission control protocol (TCP) traffics, the layer 2 multihoming approach can achieve a lossless and zero latency handover procedure by enabling soft handover. In case of handover from WiMAX to UMTS, because of the fact that the performance gain of soft handover is more affected by the differences of bandwidth and transmission delay between these wireless links, the make‐before‐break handover is preferred to achieve lossless and short latency handover procedure. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An efficient approach for DVB-H handover in DVB-H/UMTS hybrid networks

Handover in Digital Video Broadcasting for Handhelds （DVB-H） aims to provide continuous mobile broadcasting services when a user is traveling through cell boundaries. A good handover control can improve the power efficiency and gain much better reception quality. This letter provides a novel approach for DVB-H handover based on DVB-H/Universal Mobile Telecommunications System （UMTS） hybrid network, which moves the main handover function from the terminals to the networks, so that it reduces the operation complexity of the terminals and increases the power saving. When the terminal can not receive the DVB-H signal in the transmission shadow areas or because of some other reasons, the UMTS networks may offer the same service to users to make the service continuous. As the UMTS networks have the topology of the DVB-H networks, by communicating with the terminals, the UMTS networks can help the terminals to predict the handover, and avoid unnecessary handover.     

基于SCTP的异构网垂直切换研究

本文首先对异构网中的移动性管理进行介绍,对本文采用的传输层协议SCTP协议进行详细分析,在现有的基于SCTP协议的垂直切换方案上进行考虑,提出了一种基于SCTP协议的软切换方案,通过ns2仿真可以知道:当切换到带宽大的网络时分组丢失将比切换到带宽小的网络分组丢失严重,同时由于传输层协议的慢启动,通信开始和切换过程的传输速率很低。     

Chunk Checksum of SCTP for Throughput Enhancement

Stream control transmission protocol (SCTP) uses a checksum in the common header for each packet, by which a corrupted SCTP packet will be regarded as a loss. This letter proposes a new "chunk checksum" scheme for SCTP, in which each data chunk contains its own checksum field to determine a corruption of data chunk. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme could improve the throughput of SCTP transmission in the networks with a high bit error rate     

An energy-efficient interface selection for multi-mode terminals by utilizing out-of-band paging channels

With the advent of a number of wireless network technologies such as WCDMA and WLAN, current mobiles are equipped with multiple network interfaces, so called Multi-Mode Terminal (MMT). MMTs are capable to access different kinds of networks by performing a vertical handover between heterogeneous wireless networks, where during the idle state, the MMTs consume a lot of energy since their WLAN interface must wake up for listening to periodical beacons. However, previous studies on the vertical handover did not address how to select the optimal interface taking into account the characteristics of MMTs, especially energy consumption. Therefore, in this paper, we propose an energy-efficient interface selection scheme for MMTs in the integrated WLAN and cellular networks. The proposed interface selection scheme takes advantage of existing out-of-band paging channel of cellular networks, so that the WLAN interface can be completely turned off during the idle state leading to reduction in energy consumption. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme outperforms conventional approaches in terms of energy consumption with reduced signaling overhead and handover delay.     

基于强化学习的异构网络垂直切换方法

网络切换技术不仅可以保证用户的网络连接,同时能够以较强的信号传输网络数据。网络切换技术的性能对网络服务质量(quality of service, QoS)的影响至关重要。然而,现有的切换算法多数存在严重的乒乓效应,这不仅造成网络资源的严重浪费,还会损害用户的QoS。为此,提出了一种基于强化学习的异构网络垂直切换方案,主要从触发切换、网络选择及判决切换等方面进行优化。在触发切换时将垂直切换考虑成必要切换和择优切换,通过Q-Learning（QL）算法在选择网络时优化垂直切换;然后以QoS为条件,在判决切换时加入驻留定时器,从多角度减少用户切换次数,降低乒乓效应对异构网络垂直切换的影响。仿真结果表明,基于强化学习的异构网络垂直切换方法可以在保证QoS的条件下有效减少用户切换网络的次数,短时间内频繁切换的情况也有所改善,降低了乒乓效应的影响。     

Seamless session mobility scheme in heterogeneous wireless networks

The next generation wireless communication system will likely be heterogeneous networks, as various technologies can be integrated on heterogeneous networks. A mobile multiple‐mode device can easily access the Internet through different wireless interfaces. The mobile multiple‐mode device thus could switch to different access points to maintain the robustness of the connection when it can acquire more resources from other heterogeneous wireless networks. The mobile multiple‐mode device therefore needs to face the handover problem in such environment. This work introduces Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)‐based cross‐layer scheme to support seamless handover scheme over heterogeneous networks. The proposed scheme consists of a battery lifetime‐based handover policy and cross‐layer fast handover scheme, called the SIP‐based mobile stream control transmission protocol (SmSCTP). This work describes the major idea of the proposed scheme and infrastructure. The proposed scheme has been implemented in Linux system. The simulation and numerical results demonstrate that the proposed SmSCTP scheme yields better signaling cost, hand‐off delay time, packet loss and delay jitter than SIP and mSCTP protocols. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Seamless continuity of real-time video across UMTS and WLAN networks: challenges and performance evaluation

This article addresses several challenges related to the evolution toward seamless interworking of wireless LAN and 3G cellular networks. The main objective is to evaluate the conditions and restrictions under which seamless continuity of video sessions across the two networks is feasible. For this purpose, we formulate a number of practical interworking scenarios, where UMTS subscribers with ongoing real-time video sessions hand over to WLAN, and we study the feasibility of seamless continuity by means of simulation. We particularly quantify the maximum number of UMTS subscribers that can be admitted to the WLAN, subject to maintaining the same level of UMTS QoS and respecting the WLAN policies. Our results indicate that the WLAN can support seamless continuity of video sessions for only a limited number of UMTS subscribers, which depends on the applied WLAN policy, access parameters, and QoS requirements. In addition to this study, we do address several other issues that are equally important to seamless session continuity, such as the QoS discrepancies across UMTS and WLAN, the vertical handover details, and various means of access control and differentiation between regular WLAN data users and UMTS subscribers. The framework for discussing these issues is created by considering a practical UMTS/WLAN interworking architecture.     

A handover-aware seamless video streaming scheme in heterogeneous wireless networks

With the development of wireless technologies, video streaming services over heterogeneous wireless networks have become more popular in recent years. Video streaming schemes for heterogeneous networks should consider vertical handover in which the link capacity is varied significantly, because the quality experienced for a video streaming service is affected by the network status. When a vertical handover occurs, an abrupt bandwidth change and substantial handover latency lead to bursty packet loss and discontinuity of the video playback. In this paper, we propose a handover-aware video streaming scheme to provide seamless video streaming services over heterogeneous wireless networks. The proposed scheme adjusts its sending rate and the quality level of the transmitted video streams according to the significant bandwidth variation that occurs in a vertical handover. To expedite the response to the bandwidth variation due to a handover, our scheme uses an explicit notification message that informs the streaming server of a client's handover occurrence. In order to evaluate the performance, we use a simulation environment for a vertical handover between wireless local area networks and cellular networks. Through the simulation results, we prove that our scheme improves the experienced quality of video streaming in vertical handovers.     

Hybrid channel adaptive handover scheme for non-GEO satellitediversity based systems

This article presents an improved hybrid handover scheme, which is proposed for the satellite component of UMTS. The scheme is channel adaptive and is generic as it can operate in soft and hard handover. The handover algorithm uses different power thresholds to add/drop a highest and second highest satellite and uses dual satellite diversity only under critical channel conditions. The analysis includes the simulation of a LEO constellation and the elevation-dependent satellite channel. Based on the channel time series the hybrid scheme shows improved performance when compared to existing handover schemes and is less bandwidth demanding than continuous diversity     

Analysis of Ongoing SIP Session with Resource Reservation in Vertical Handover Scenario

Typically, WiFi-to-3G handover is time-critical depending on mobility and speed of mobile host (MH) while 3G-to-WiFi handover is optional for better quality of service and less cost. In this paper, a WiFi-to-3G vertical handover scheme is proposed in order to reduce the total handover delay and keep it within a desirable maximum limit. Our main concern is focused on MH attached currently to WiFi, which tries to move out of WLAN for switching to 3G link. Received signal strength (RSS) is actually an important decision criterion for vertical handover as well as horizontal handover. However, WiFi-to-3G vertical handover cannot be triggered by the signal decay of 3G system since there is no comparable signal strength available to aid the 3G handover decision. During WiFi-to-3G vertical handover, moreover, multimedia session initiation protocol (SIP) session re-setup with resource reservation cannot be completed before network resources along the new path via 3G are successfully reserved. Hence, RSS-based vertical handover algorithm with SIP session re-setup is proposed. From the results, we can know that well-defined or dynamically-adjusted threshold values could result in getting enough time in order to re-setup SIP session with resource reservation.