Distributed radio link control protocol facilitating fast cell site selection in an all-IP cellular network

Abstract

As mobile cellular networks evolve to carry both traditional voice and new data services, an all-IP based radio access network akin to the Internet is a favorable approach for future radio access networks. The main characteristic of such an architecture is that a lot of the radio network functionalities are distributed across the network and located in the base stations. In this paper, we propose a distributed radio link control protocol that allows a mobile to rapidly switch between base stations with minimal protocol overhead and required state information transfer. We present simulation results to demonstrate the expected throughput performance gains and investigate the impact of the transmission suspension time required to switch between base stations. Finally we present some evidence that the control traffic generated by the fast cell switching procedure is smooth, thereby simplifying the design of the backhaul network. I. INTRODUCTION The migration of the radio access network to an all-IP network (akin to the Internet) is a favorable approach for future radio access networks and provides significant advantages in terms of cost savings, scalability, and simplified network management (1). A typical all-IP network architecture is illustrated in Fig. 1. The base stations are themselves routers, called base station routers (BSR) and connected to the service provider's Intranet, which is itself connected to the Internet through a gateway. IP is the network protocol transporting user and control traffic information within the Intranet. The control server provides the necessary call service control. An important characteristic of such a network is that a lot of the radio network functionalities are integrated with the base station functionalities and are thus distributed across the network.