Mobility

Section 8

Wireless Communication Networks, N. Moayedian 3

What is mobility?

• spectrum of mobility, from the network perspective:

no mobility high mobility

device moves device moves device moves device moves

between within same AP in among APs in among multiple
networks, but one provider one provider provider networks,
powers down network network while maintaining
while moving ongoing
We’re interested in these!
connections
Wireless Communication Networks, N. Moayedian
Wireless and Mobile Networks: 7- 4
Handoff Parameters and Underlying Support

• Change of radio resources from one cell to another adjacent one

• Handoff depends on cell size, boundary length, signal strength, fading,
reflection, etc.
• Handoff can be initiated by MS or BS and could be due to
• Radio link
• Network management
• Service issues

Wireless Communication Networks, N. Moayedian 5

Handoff Parameters (Cont’d)
• Radio link handoff is due to mobility of MS
• It depends on:
• Number of MSs in the cell
• Number of MSs that have left the cell
• Number of calls generated in the cell
• Number of calls transferred from the neighboring cells
• Number and duration of calls terminated in the cell
• Number of calls that were handoff to neighboring cells
• Cell dwell time
• Network management may cause handoff if there is drastic imbalance
of traffic in adjacent cells and optimal balance of resources is required
• Service related handoff is due to the degradation of QoS (quality of
service)

Wireless Communication Networks, N. Moayedian 6

Time for Handoff
• Need for Handoff is determined by:
• Signal strength
• CIR (carrier to interference ratio)
• Factors deciding right time for handoff:
• Signal strength
• Bit error rate (BER)
• Distance

Wireless Communication Networks, N. Moayedian 7

Handoff Region
Signal strength Signal strength
due to BSi due to BSj

Pi(x) Pj(x)

Pmin
BSi MS BSj
X1 X3 X5 Xth X4 X2

By looking at the variation of signal strength from either base station it is

possible to decide on the optimum area where handoff can take place
Wireless Communication Networks, N. Moayedian 8
 Handoff Initiation (Cont’d)

• Region X3-X4 indicates the handoff area,

where depending on other factors,
the handoff needs to be performed
• One option is to do handoff at X5 where the two signal strengths are
equal
• If MS moves back and forth around X5, it will result in too frequent
handoffs (ping-pong effect)
• Therefore MS is allowed to continue with the existing BS till the
signal strength decreases by a threshold value E
• Different cellular systems follow different handoff procedure
Wireless Communication Networks, N. Moayedian 9
Types of Handoff
 Std IEEE 802.21 @ 2008
 Hard Handoff (break before make)
communicate with one BS in a given cell only
Releasing current resources from the prior BS before acquiring resources from the
next BS
FDMA,TDMA follow this type of handoff
 Soft Handoff (make before break)
may be in communication with two or more base stations
Most in CDMA
since the same channel is used, we can use the same if orthogonal to the codes in the
next BS
This turns out to reduce the total interference power and increase the system
capacity, the number of simultaneous users allowed per cell

Wireless Communication Networks, N. Moayedian 10

Hard Handoff

BS1 MS BS2 BS1 MS BS2

(a) Before handoff (c) After handoff

BS1 MS BS2

(b) During handoff (No connection)

Wireless Communication Networks, N. Moayedian 11
Soft Handoff (CDMA only)

BS1 MS BS2 BS1 MS BS2

(a) Before handoff

(c) After handoff

BS1 MS BS2

(b) During handoff

Wireless Communication Networks, N. Moayedian 12
Mobility challenge:
content
provider
If a device moves from network datacenter
network
Verizon
one network another:
 How will the public Internet
“network” know to
forward packets to
the new network?
client moves from
Verizon to AT&T
AT&T

Wireless Communication Networks, N. Moayedian

Wireless and Mobile Networks: 7- 13
Mobility approaches
 let network (routers) handle it:
• routers advertise well-known name, address (e.g., permanent 32-
bit IP address), or number (e.g., cell #) of visiting mobile node via
usual routing table exchange
• Internet routing could do this already with no changes! Routing
tables indicate where each mobile located via longest prefix match!

Wireless Communication Networks, N. Moayedian

Wireless and Mobile Networks: 7- 14
Mobility approaches
 let network (routers) handle it:
• routers advertise well-known notname, address (e.g., permanent 32-
bit IP address), or number (e.g., cell #) of visiting mobile node via
scalable
usual routing table exchange
to billions of
mobiles
• Internet routing could do this already with no changes! Routing
tables indicate where each mobile located via longest prefix match!
 let end-systems handle it: functionality at the “edge”
• indirect routing: communication from correspondent to mobile
goes through home network, then forwarded to remote mobile
• direct routing: correspondent gets foreign address of mobile, send
directly to mobile
Wireless Communication Networks, N. Moayedian
Wireless and Mobile Networks: 7- 15
Contacting a mobile friend: I wonder where
Alice moved to?
Consider friend frequently changing
locations, how do you find him/her?
 search all phone books?
 expect her to let you know
where he/she is?
 call his/her parents?
 Facebook!

The importance of having a “home”:

 a definitive source of information about you
 a place where people can find out where you are
Wireless Communication Networks, N. Moayedian
Wireless and Mobile Networks: 7- 16
 Home network, visited network: 4G/5G
Home
home network:
Subscriber
Server
 (paid) service plan with
cellular provider, e.g.,
home mobile
carrier network P-GW
Verizon, Orange
public Internet  home network HSS stores
and
inter-carrier IPX identify & services info
in home network

visited network:
 any network other than
P-GW your home network
SIM card: global visited mobile
identify info carrier network  service agreement with
including home other networks: to provide
network roaming in
visited network access to visiting mobile
Wireless Communication Networks, N. Moayedian
Wireless and Mobile Networks: 7- 17
 Home network, visited network: ISP/WiFi
ISP/WiFi: no notion of global “home”
authentication  credentials from ISP (e.g.,
access
server
username, password) stored
on device or with user
public  ISPs may have national,
Internet
attach
international presence
 different networks: different
credentials
• some exceptions (e.g.,
authentication
eduroam)
access
server
• architectures exist (mobile
IP) for 4G-like mobility, but
attach
not used
Wireless Communication Networks, N. Moayedian
Wireless and Mobile Networks: 7- 18
Home network, visited network: generic
Home Network Visited Network
e.g.,: 128.119/16 e.g.,: 79.129/16

Permanent IP: Home NAT IP:

128.119.40.186 Subscriber 10.0.0.99
IMSI Server IMSI Mobility
78:4f:43:98:d9:27 manager
78:4f:43:98:d9:27

Mobility Visited
manager Home network
network
Home gateway gateway
gateway
public or private
Internet

Correspondent

Wireless Communication Networks, N. Moayedian

Wireless and Mobile Networks: 7- 19
Registration: home needs to know where you are!
Home Network Visited Network
e.g.,: 128.119/16 e.g.,: 79.129/16
1 mobile associates
Home
Permanent IP:
128.119.40.186 Subscriber
2
NAT IP:
10.0.0.99
with visited
IMSI Mobility
78:4f:43:98:d9:27 Server IMSI
78:4f:43:98:d9:27 manager mobility manager
Mobility
Home
Visited visited mobility
manager network
network
Home gateway gateway manager registers
gateway
public or private mobile’s location
Internet with home HSS
end result:
 visited mobility manager knows about mobile
 home HSS knows location of mobile
Wireless Communication Networks, N. Moayedian
Wireless and Mobile Networks: 7- 20
 Mobility with indirect routing
Home Network Visited Network
e.g.,: 128.119/16 e.g.,: 79.129/16

Permanent IP: Home NAT IP:

128.119.40.186 Subscriber 10.0.0.99 3
IMSI Server IMSI Mobility
78:4f:43:98:d9:27 manager
78:4f:43:98:d9:27
visited gateway router
2
Mobility Visited forwards to mobile
manager Home 4a network
network
Home gateway gateway
gateway
home gateway receives public or private
Internet
datagram, forwards (tunnels) 1
4b visited gateway router forwards
to remote gateway reply to correspondent via home
correspondent uses home network (4a) or directly (4b)
address as datagram Correspondent
destination address
Wireless Communication Networks, N. Moayedian
Wireless and Mobile Networks: 7- 21
Mobility with indirect routing: comments

• triangle routing:
• inefficient when correspondent
and mobile are in same network
 mobile moves among visited networks: transparent to correspondent!
• registers in new visited network
• new visited network registers with home HSS
• datagrams continue to be forwarded from home network to mobile
in new network
• on-going (e.g., TCP) connections between correspondent and mobile
can be maintained!
Wireless Communication Networks, N. Moayedian
Wireless and Mobile Networks: 7- 22
Mobility with direct routing
Home Network Visited Network
e.g.,: 128.119/16 e.g.,: 79.129/16

Permanent IP: Home NAT IP:

128.119.40.186 Subscriber 10.0.0.99 4
IMSI Server IMSI Mobility
78:4f:43:98:d9:27 manager
78:4f:43:98:d9:27
visited gateway router
Mobility Visited forwards to mobile
manager network
gateway
Home gateway
2
public or private 3
Internet
correspondent contacts 1
home HSS, gets mobile’s Correspondent
addresses datagram to
visited network
visited network
Correspondent
address

Wireless Communication Networks, N. Moayedian

Wireless and Mobile Networks: 7- 23
Mobility with direct routing: comments
 overcomes triangle routing inefficiencies
 non-transparent to correspondent: correspondent must get care-of-
address from home agent
 what if mobile changes visited network?
• can be handled, but with additional complexity

Wireless Communication Networks, N. Moayedian

Wireless and Mobile Networks: 7- 24
Mobility in 4G networks: major mobility tasks
Mobility 1 base station association:
manager
Home  covered earlier
Subscriber 2 1
Server
MME  mobile provides IMSI –
Home 3 base station identifying itself, home network
network P-GW S-GW 4
2 control-plane configuration:
Internet  MME, home HSS establish
P-GW Visited network control-plane state - mobile
is in visited network
Streaming
server 3 data-plane configuration:
 MME configures forwarding tunnels for mobile
 visited, home network establish tunnels from home
Packet Data Network gateway (P-GW) to mobile
4 mobile handover: using indirect routing
 mobile device changes its point of attachment to visited network
Wireless Communication Networks, N. Moayedian
Wireless and Mobile Networks: 7- 25
Mobile IP

• mobile IP architecture standardized ~20 years ago [RFC 5944]

• long before ubiquitous smartphones, 4G support for Internet protocols
• did not see wide deployment/use
• perhaps WiFi for Internet, and 2G/3G phones for voice were “good enough” at
the time
• mobile IP architecture:
• indirect routing to node (via home network) using tunnels
• mobile IP home agent: combined roles of 4G HSS and home P-GW
• mobile IP foreign agent: combined roles of 4G MME and S-GW
• protocols for agent discovery in visited network, registration of visited location in
home network via ICMP extensions

Wireless Communication Networks, N. Moayedian

Wireless and Mobile Networks: 7- 26
Handoff Model

Wireless Communication Networks, N. Moayedian 27

• n : the arrival rate of new call in each • Ph = η/(η + µ) : handoff probability
cell
• h : the arrival rate of a handoff call
• λh ≈ η/µ λn
from neighboring cells • µc = µ+ η the average call rate in a
• Pb : the blocking probability of new calls
cell
• K : the total number of channels
allocated to a cell • ρh ≡ λh/µc
•  : the call service rate • ρ ≡ (λn + λh) /µc
• 1/η: average dwell time
• c-dwell : the outgoing rate of MSs •
•

• Pd ≈ Ph /(1 − Ph) Phf ,

Wireless Communication Networks, N. Moayedian 28
• m channels available in a cell
• g guard channels
• Ph handoff probability
• µc = µ+ η
• ρh ≡ λh/µc handoff intensity factor
• ρ ≡ (λn + λh)/µc
• ρn ≡ λn/µc new-call arrival intensity
• L= λn/µ = ρn(1+ η/µ)

Wireless Communication Networks, N. Moayedian 29

Wireless Communication Networks, N. Moayedian 30
 Handoff Probability for constant velocity
1
Ph
0.9
PH
0.8 PN

0.7 Ph = 1/(1+ )
0.6 PH = exp(- )
0.5 PN =(1-exp(- )) /
0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

= A / Vc

Wireless Communication Networks, N. Moayedian 31

Uniform velocity

Wireless Communication Networks, N. Moayedian 32

 Handoff Probability for uniform velocity
1
Ph
0.9
PN
0.8 PH
0.7

0.6

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
= A / Vm

Wireless Communication Networks, N. Moayedian 33

 1

Ph
0.9
PH cte
0.8 PN cte
PN uni
0.7

PH uni
0.6

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Wireless Communication Networks, N. Moayedian 34