Mobility Management
To be able to continue accessing information uninterruptedly using a mobile
device while moving requires networking infrastructure to provide support for:
Determining Mobile device’s current location (e.g., access point (AP) in WLAN and base
station in cellular networks) so that data is routed to the current address of device
(Location Management)
Establishing a connection with another AP ( access point or base station) when mobile
device moves out of the range of the current AP ( Handoff Management)
Routing the connection/data packets to the new AP.
The first task, which requires maintaining the current location of every mobile
node in the network, is known as location management.
Location Management Basics
Conceptually, any location management scheme consists of two
operations:
• Update ( Registration)
• Search
The search operation is invoked by a node that wants to establish a
connection with a mobile node whose location it currently does not
know.
The update operation, also known as a registration operation, is
performed to inform the system of the mobile node’s current
location.
Location Management Basics
The update operation helps in making the search operation more
efficient.
For example, if location updates are never performed for a mobile node m,
then locating m may involve paging all the mobile nodes in the network
with the message, “If you are m, then please report your location.”
Paging can be very expensive both for the network and for the mobile
nodes.
However, if the location update operations are performed very frequently,
then the volume of these operations may overwhelm the location
management system
Location Management Basics
In general, the overhead (cost) of search operations depends on:
• the granularity (scale or level of detail) of location information
• the structure of the database that stores the location information (will be discussed later)
• the search procedure (will be discussed later).
Location information can be maintained at various granularities. In a cellular system, for
example, the finer granularity at which location can be (and needs to be) maintained is a cell.
This would require a mobile node to update its location whenever it moves from one cell to another,
therefore paging at cell level.
However, if the location information is maintained at a coarser granularity, say, in an area
consisting of certain number of contiguous cells.
This would require a mobile device to update its location whenever it moves from one registration area to
another, therefore paging at registration area level, i.e., the search cost increases because a larger number of
cells need to be paged to obtain the exact location (cell) of the mobile node each time a call needs to be
established. Thus the granularity of location information maintained for a mobile node by the system has an
impact on the performance of the location management scheme.
Thus the granularity of location information maintained for a mobile node by the system has
an impact on the performance of the location management scheme.
Handoff Management
Handoff Management is concerned with ensuring that the mobile node
remains connected to the network while moving from one cell to another.
• Handoff conceptually involves several subtasks:
1. deciding when to hand off to a new AP,
2. selecting a new AP from among several APs in the vicinity of the mobile node,
3. acquiring resources such as channels,
4. informing the old AP so that it can reroute the packets it gets for this mobile
node and also transfer any state information to the new AP.
Location management assists in establishing new connections to a
mobile node, whereas handoffs ensure that the mobile node remains
connected to the network.
Handoff Management
Refer to a third major task of mobility management …task in
slide 1 ….. to ensure that the packets or connection are
routed to the new AP
So, after handoff in-transit packets when a mobile node
moves from one AP to another.
In summary, mobility management includes both location
management and handoff management.
Location Management Principles and
Techniques
Use of several databases called location registrars.
They are used to maintain location and other information
(preferences and service profile) of mobile nodes.
Consider a simple location management scheme that uses a
single-location registrar, called the home location registrar
(HLR) to maintain location information of all the mobile nodes
in the network.
Location Management Principles and
Techniques
Refer to fig. 2.1….
Search and update operations:
The location of a mobile node is maintained at the granularity of a cell, i.e.,
which cell the mobile node was in when it last registered. For each mobile
node m, the HLR maintains a mobility binding (m, c), where c is the latest cell
(location) of m known to the HLR. The location information of m in the HLR is
updated as follows:
When a mobile node is switched on, the HLR is notified of the current
location of m (the cell in which the mobile node is located). As illustrated in
Fig. 2.1a, the mobile node m’s location is sent to the location server. The
registration message travels via the base station of the cell to the location
server.
Location Management Principles and
Techniques
Search and update operations (continued):
Whenever handoff occurs, the HLR is notified of the cell ID to which m is
handing off to. As illustrated in Fig. 2.1b, when the mobile node moves to cell
d from cell c, the mobile node may decide to register its location to be cell d.
To find a mobile node m’s current location, first the HLR is contacted. The HLR
contacts the base station of cell c in the mobility binding for m. The base
station pages for mobile m in its cell. If m is in cell c and is switched on, then it
can respond to the page message, and connection can be established. Figure
2.1c illustrates the messaging between various entities in this location
management scheme
Registration area-based Location
Management
Personal communication service (PCS) networks such as GSM
use a registration area–based mobility management scheme
The service area is partitioned into several registration areas
(RAs). Each RA consists of several contiguous communication
cells.
In the GSM standard, RAs are called location areas (LAs),
The terms Registration Area (RA) and Location Area are used
interchangeably.
Registration area-based Location Management
continued…
Refer to Figure 2.2
Cells c and d are in registration area RA1 and cell e is in
registration area RA2 .
Note that the average update cost has decreased because the HLR
is not informed when mobile node m moves from cell c to cell d.
However, the search cost has increased because all the cells in the
registration area have to be contacted when the exact location
(cell) of the mobile node needs to be obtained to establish a call.
Registration area-based Location Management
continued…
Cellular systems such as GSM use an RA location
management scheme that employs a two-level hierarchy of
location registrars ( we will come to this later) to avoid
contacting all the cells in Management
Location the RA to Caselocate
Studies a mobile node.
Conceptually, a location registrar is associated with each RA.
each location registrar is in charge of a single RA.
Consider that there are n registration areas (RA1, RA2, . . . ,
RAn) in the service area, n location registrars (LR1, LR2, . . . ,
LRn), and LRi is associated with Rai.
Location Management Case Studies
Location Management Case Studies
Location management in cellular systems (e.g., GSM)
Mobile IP location management
Both cellular networks and Mobile IP location management
use a two-level hierarchy of location registrars
Home Location Registrar
Visitor Location registrars
Cellular network location
management scheme
In cellular network schemes, two types of location registrars are used:
Home Location Registrars (HLRs)
Visitor Location Registrars (VLRs).
The HLR keeps the location and profile information for all the mobile nodes.
Each RA has a VLR associated with it that records the location (cell ID) of all the mobile nodes that
currently are in that RA.
The HLR for a mobile node records the RA, which is the ID of the VLR associated with the RA in
which the mobile node currently is located.
• When a call needs to be established to mobile node m that is currently located in cell c of RAc,
• first the HLR of mobile node m HLR(m) is consulted to obtain the ID of the VLR that may have information
about m,
• next, VLR(m) is contacted to obtain the current cell in which mobile node m is located.
Cellular network location management scheme
continued…..
When a mobile node is switched on, it registers with one of the
available access points (base stations).
This registration operation also involves updating the VLR and the
HLR.
When a mobile node m moves from cell c to cell d, the following two
scenarios are possible:
Both cells c and d belong to the same RA. In this case, only the VLR is updated
to indicate in which cell mobile node m is currently located. This helps when
mobile node m needs to be located. In this case, there is no need to contact
the HLR(m).
Cellular network location management scheme
continued…..
Cells c and d belong to different registration areas, RAc and RAd , respectively.
In this case, the following two actions need to be taken:
Mobile mode m needs to register with RAd and deregister with RAc.
HLR(m) needs to be notified that mobile node m is now in RAd.
Let us examine what actions need to be performed when mobile node m
needs to be located. For example, to establish a connection between mobile
nodes n and m. Assume that mobile node n is in cell c and that mobile node m
is in cell d, where cell c belongs to RAc and cell d belongs to RAd.
First, VLR(RAd) is consulted to see whether mobile node m is in RAd. If so, a search is performed in the
vicinity of last reported cell of mobile node m.
If m is not RAd, then the HLR(m) is contacted to get the current RAm.
VLR(RAm) is contacted and performs a local search in the last reported cell of mobile node m, and if
successful, it returns the current location of mobile node m.
Mobile IP location management
Mobile IP is an extension of Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) to
support host mobility at the IP layer (Perkins, 2002).
In mobile IP, operations of location management and packet rerouting
are tied closely together.
This solves the problem caused by mobile nodes frequently changing
their IP network by associating two IP addresses with each node:
(1) a permanent IP address and
(2) a care-of IP address.
Mobile IP location management
continued…
A mobile node has a permanent IP address that is topologically
significant on its home network.
While a mobile node is attached to its home network, the packets
destined to it get routed in the normal fashion.
When a node moves to a foreign network, it acquires another
temporary IP address (a care-of IP address).
Further, it registers this temporary IP address with its home agent (HA).
• An HA is a software entity running on some machine attached to the home
network and is responsible for ensuring that the IP packets destined for a
currently roaming mobile node get rerouted to the node’s currentlocation.
Mobile IP location management
continued…
A mobile node has a permanent IP address that is topologically
significant on its home network.
While a mobile node is attached to its home network, the packets
destined to it get routed in the normal fashion.
When a node moves to a foreign network, it acquires another
temporary IP address (a care-of IP address).
Further, it registers this temporary IP address with its home agent (HA).
• An HA is a software entity running on some machine attached to the home
network and is responsible for ensuring that the IP packets destined for a
currently roaming mobile node get rerouted to the node’s current location.
