all-IP Wireless Networks Research Articles

An Enhanced Group Mobility Protocol for 6LoWPAN-Based Wireless Body Area Networks

The IPv6 over low power wireless personal area network (6LoWPAN) has attracted lots of attention recently because it can be used for the communications of Internet of things. In this paper, the concept of group-based network roaming in proxy mobile IPv6 (PMIPv6) domain is considered in the 6LoWPAN-based wireless body area networks. PMIPv6 is a standard to manage the network-based mobility in all-IP wireless network. However, it does not perform well in group-based body area networks. To further reduce the handoff delay and signaling cost, an enhanced group mobility scheme is proposed in this paper to reduce the number of control messages, including router solicitation and router advertisement messages as opposed to the group-based PMIPv6 protocol. Simulation results illustrate that the proposed handoff scheme can reduce the handoff delay and signaling cost. The packet loss ratio and the overhead can also be reduced.

Survey and Challenges of QoE Management Issues in Wireless Networks

With the move towards converged all-IP wireless network environments, managing end-user Quality of Experience (QoE) poses a challenging task, aimed at meeting high user expectations and requirements regarding reliable and cost-effective communication, access to any service, anytime and anywhere, and across multiple operator domains. In this paper, we give a survey of state-of-the-art research activities addressing the field of QoE management, focusing in particular on the domain of wireless networks and addressing three management aspects: QoE modeling, monitoring and measurement, and adaptation and optimization. Furthermore, we identify and discuss the key aspects and challenges that need to be considered when conducting research in this area.

Delay-Sensitive Mobile Group Services Over Cellular Networks

A scalable framework for handling delay-sensitive, real-time mobile group applications over cellular infrastructure is introduced in this work. Examples for such applications are mobile instant messaging services, mobile social networks, mobile conference calls, and mobile multi-player on-line games. The key idea is to exploit the cellular database hierarchy in order to provide group applications in an efficient manner, to scalable groups, starting from 3 to 5 members, up to a few thousands members, dispersed over a wide geographic area. The main focus is on tracking the presence and the locations of the participating members in an efficient manner, and on advanced group services, such as multicast messages and conference calls, to group members, and advanced searches such as "find the nearest taxi". As a result, the delay associated with delivering a message to many independent users is significantly reduced, in comparison with the delay typically expected from existing cellular networks. The proposed method is consistent with the existing mobility management scheme currently used in cellular networks, and fits into MIP and MIPv6. Thus, it can be easily applied on existing cellular networks, as well as on future all-IP wireless networks.

Future wireless networks: key issues and a survey (ID/locator split perspective)

Future wireless networks (FWNs) are expected to be a convergence of different kinds of wireless technologies, such as cellular technologies, wireless local area networks (WLANs), wireless metropolitan area networks, wireless sensor networks, and traditional wired networks. The internet protocol (IP) will be potentially adopted as the common networking protocol for diverse networking technologies including the next generation of cellular networks using system architecture evolution (SAE). However, the IP architecture has several known challenges, such as mobility, multihoming, routing scalability, location privacy, path preference selection, etc. One of the greatest problems preventing the networks from overcoming these challenges is that the IP address is contextually overloaded, both as locators and identifiers. As a result, in this paper, we describe the issues of all-IP wireless networks, and survey recent proposals focusing on IP address overloading that can be applied to FWNs.

Resource Management using Route Selection and Vertical Handoff Algorithm in Next Generation All-IP Wireless Network

The present work is a resource management scheme using route selection algorithm and vertical handoff algorithm for next generation all-IP wireless network. It considers two different variant for scheduling and resource management in next generation all-IP wireless network. The present work considers the integration of WLAN domain and cellular domain under the control of global mobility agent. A vertical handoff controller is maintained centrally at global mobility agent to trigger route selection algorithm and network initiated vertical handoff algorithm. When a mobile node wants to initiate a session or the remaining battery power life time of a mobile node becomes equal to a threshold, it sends a route request message to the vertical handoff controller. The vertical handoff controller triggers route selection algorithm to select the most appropriate route for the mobile node so that the transmission or reception of the data packets is completed within the remaining battery power life time of the mobile node. The proposed scheme considers two different variants for scheduling and resource management. The route selection algorithm selects a single route for all the sessions of a mobile node provided by the desired resource to maintain transmission or reception of all the sessions is available in variant 1. Otherwise all the sessions of a mobile node is considered as loss of sessions. The route selection algorithm selects route for each session of a mobile node independently if the desired resource to maintain transmission or reception of a session is available in variant. Otherwise only the corresponding session of the mobile node is considered as loss of session. The vertical handoff controller also triggers vertical handoff algorithm in case the power consumption of a domain crosses a threshold. This algorithm helps to achieve load balancing and also helps to maintain the packet loss probability, call block probability, average delay and average cost of the network almost constant. Results based on a detailed performance evaluation study are also presented to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed scheme.

SHIP: Cross-layer mobility management scheme based on Session Initiation Protocol and Host Identity Protocol

In the all-IP wireless networks, mobility management is a crucial issue, and it can be operated at different layers in the traditional Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) stack. Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is an application layer protocol used for the signaling and the mobility management without any modifications of the lower layer protocols, especially in the voice over IP environment. However, since it always gets the lowest priority in the networking model, it will produce the large handoff latency, the packet loss, and the handoff blocking probability. To provide an efficient mobility management, SIP can be combined with other protocols. In this paper, we propose a cross-layer mobility management scheme based on SIP and the Host Identity Protocol (HIP) which is a new protocol designed to provide secure and continuous communications between two nodes by separating the identifier and the locator roles of the traditional IP address. In the proposed scheme, the mobile node and the correspondent node use their host identity tags to establish the session connections, and the mobile nodes uses the HIP location update scheme instead of the SIP location update scheme to update its IP address when it moves to a new subnet. We discuss the proposed scheme's architecture and the major mobility procedures, including the session setup, the handoff and the location update in this paper. We also develop an analytical model to study the handoff performance of the proposed scheme, the typical SIP, and the hybrid SIP/Mobile IP, respectively. The analytical results demonstrate that the proposed scheme outperforms the typical SIP and the hybrid SIP/Mobile IP in terms of the handoff latency, the packet loss, and the handoff blocking probability.

Towards all-IP wireless networks: architectures and resource management mechanism

Future wireless internet will consist of different wireless technologies that should operate together in an efficient way to provide seamless connectivity to mobile users. The integration of different networks and technologies is a challenging problem mainly because of the heterogeneity in access technologies, network architectures, protocols and service demands. Firstly, this paper discusses three architectures for an all-IP network integrating different wireless technologies using IP and its associated service models. The first architecture, called ISB, is based on a combination of Differentiated Services (DiffServ) and Integrated Services (IntServ) models appropriate for low-bandwidth 3G cellular networks with significant resource management capabilities. The second architecture, called DSB, is purely based on the DiffServ model targeted for high-bandwidth wireless LANs with little resource management capabilities. The last architecture, called AIP, combines ISB and DSB architectures to facilitate the integration of wireless LAN and 3G cellular networks towards a uniform architecture for all-IP wireless networks. Secondly, this paper proposes a flexible hierarchical resource management mechanism for the proposed All-IP Architecture (AIP) which aims at providing connection-level Quality of Service (QoS) for mobile users. Simulation results show that the proposed mechanism satisfies the hard constraint on connection dropping probability while maintaining a high-bandwidth utilisation.

Automated network selection in a heterogeneous wireless network environment

Service delivery in a heterogeneous all-IP wireless network environment requires the selection of an optimal access network. Selection of a non-optimal network can result in undesirable effects such as higher costs or poor service experience. Network selection in such an environment is influenced by several factors, and currently a complete solution is not available to solve this problem. This article describes a comprehensive decision making process to rank candidate networks for service delivery to the terminal. The proposed mechanism is based on a unique decision process that uses compensatory and non-compensatory multi-attribute decision making algorithms jointly to assist the terminal in selecting the top candidate network

Mobility management architectures based on joint mobile IP and SIP protocols

In the all-IP wireless networks beyond the third generation, mobility management can be effectively achieved by applying mobile IP (MIP) and the session initiation protocol (SIP) jointly. Nevertheless, an efficient combination of both protocols remains an open research issue. Conventional hybrid MIP-SIP mobility architectures operate MIP and SIP almost independently, resulting in significant redundant costs. This article investigates the representative hybrid MIP-SIP architectures and explores the joint optimizations between MIP and SIP for a more cost-efficient mobility support whilst utilizing their complementary power. Two novel design approaches are presented. The first approach culminates in a tightly integrated architecture, which merges the redundant mobility entities in MIP and SIP to yield maximum system efficiency. The other approach leads to a loosely integrated architecture, where necessary interactions are introduced between MIP and SIP mobility servers while their physical entities are kept intact. Major mobility procedures, including location update, session setup and handoff, are discussed in these architectures. The analytical results demonstrate that both proposed architectures outperform typical hybrid MIP-SIP architectures in terms of clear-cut reduced signaling costs

Resource management for QoS support in cellular/WLAN interworking

To provide mobile users with seamless Internet access anywhere and anytime/ there is a strong demand for interworking mechanisms between cellular networks and wireless local area networks in the next-generation all-IP wireless networks. In this article we focus on resource management and call admission control for QoS support in cellular/WLAN interworking. In specific, a DiffServ interworking architecture with loose coupling is presented. Resource allocation in the interworking environment is investigated/ taking into account the network characteristics, vertical handoff, user mobility, and service types. An effective call admission control strategy with service differentiation is proposed for QoS provisioning and efficient resource utilization. Numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed call admission control scheme.

An integrated model of packetized VBR teletraffic source for cellular NG All-IP wireless networks

We propose the integrated model of a single packetized variable bit rate (VBR) teletraffic source for cellular next generation (NG) All-IP networks. The proposed model integrates two parts: the mobility model and the teletraffic model. The mobility model captures mobility behavior of a single user and modeled by a Markov chain with finite state space. The teletraffic model captures teletraffic characteristics of call and packet levels and is represented by the superposition of a Markov chain and a discrete-time batch Markovian arrival process (D-BMAP). Mobility and teletraffic models are integrated, such that the whole model is a triply stochastic process for which the D-BMAP framework remains valid. Numerical examples of the proposed model indicates that even in presence of probabilistic dependence between user mobility and its teletraffic demands it is still feasible to estimate the actual value of call and packet level teletraffic demands offered by a single user to cellular NG All-IP networks. Performance evaluation studies show that the proposed model can be used to predict call and packet level performance degradation experienced by applications in cellular NG All-IP networks under different mobility behavior of nomadic users.

Mobility Management Alternatives for Migration to Mobile Internet Session-Based Services

Session-based Internet protocol (IP) applications, such as Internet telephony, are an important component of the emerging mobile Internet. The ubiquitous availability of these services is critical to the success of the mobile Internet. Because all-IP networks will be deployed in phases and current mobile telecommunication systems will be in operation for decades to come, the interworking and migration between current network services and all-IP services is a key problem. In this paper, we address seamless roaming for session initiation protocol-based services across current cellular telecommunication networks and emerging all-IP wireless networks, such as those using third-generation and WiFi networks. We present an abstract mobility model, and map this model to three basic approaches for supporting seamless mobility: a master-slave approach, a federated system, and a unified approach. We discuss the challenges and implementation of an instance of the unified mobility management approach, called the Unified Mobility Manager, and then compare the tradeoffs of the three systems using a comparative performance analysis. We conclude that unified mobility management is most efficient if a great deal of interworking is required, and as more users invoke IP-based services; the federated approach is efficient when a single network technology is dominant and data access is limited, but requires sharing of data across networks; the master-slave approach is the least efficient, but is easy to introduce if the number of network types is small.

Architecture for Mobility and QoS Support in All-IP Wireless Networks

Mobility management and quality-of-service (QoS) provisioning are the important tasks on the future development of wireless networks. The high host mobility makes these tasks more challenging. In this paper, we propose an architecture which supports both mobility and QoS management in Internet protocol (IP)-based wireless networks. In mobility management, the fast handoff, which the packets are forwarded in advance to the neighboring locations where a mobile node (MN) may move to, is provided to reduce the service disruption. Also, the fast location lookup, which the routing information about a MN is replicated to some routers, is provided to avoid the triangular routing problem incurred by the protocol of mobile IP. In QoS provisioning, we enable the end-to-end QoS guarantee by using the resource reservation protocol (RSVP) signaling. In particular, the RSVP aggregation technique is used to avoid the scalability problem. Also, the technique of passive resource reservation is used to reduce the influence of host mobility on the resource reservation delay. We emphasize the integration of mobility and QoS management in the architecture design. A performance analysis is given to justify the benefits of our proposed architecture.

Guest Editorial All-IP Wireless Networks

Guest Editorial All-IP Wireless Networks

JTCP: Jitter-Based TCP for Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

Transmission control protocol (TCP), a widely used transport protocol performs well over the traditional network which is constructed by purely wired links. As wireless access networks are growing rapidly, the wired/wireless mixed internetwork, a heterogeneous environment will get wide deployment in the next-generation ALL-IP wireless networks. TCP which detects the losses as congestion events could not suit the heterogeneous network in which the losses will be introduced by higher bit-error rates or handoffs. There exist some unsolved challenges for applying TCP over wireless links. End-to-end congestion control and fairness issues are two significant factors. To satisfy these two criteria, we propose a jitter-based scheme to adapt sending rates to the packet losses and jitter ratios. The experiment results show that our jitter-based TCP (JTCP) conducts good performance over the heterogeneous network.

Integration of wireless LAN and 3G wireless - Efficient mobility management for vertical handoff between wwan and wlan

As we move toward next-generation all-IP wireless networks, we are facing the integration of heterogeneous networks, such as WWAN and WLAN, where vertical handoff is required. In vertical handoff between WWAN and WLAN, mobile hosts should be able to move freely across different networks while satisfying QoS requirements for a variety of applications. In order to achieve seamless handoff and maintain continuity of connection, we propose a novel mobility. management system that integrates a connection manager to detect network condition changes in a timely and accurate manner, and a virtual connectivity manager that uses an end-to-end principle to maintain a connection without additional network infrastructure support. A prototype system was built to test the effectiveness of the proposed system. Experiments show that seamless roaming between WLAN and WWAN can be achieved, and much better performance can be obtained than with the traditional scheme.

Mobility management in third-generation all-IP networks

It is now widely recognized that using IP as the foundation for next-generation mobile networks makes strong economic and technical sense, since it takes advantage of the ubiquitous installed IP infrastructure, capitalizes on the IETF standardization process, and benefits from both existing and emerging IP-related technologies and services. The large-scale support of data services and their integration with legacy services are the common objectives of all wireless efforts termed third generation (3G) and beyond. In these all-IP wireless networks, IP can be deployed in two modes: the transport mode and the native mode. As we show in this article, this duality in the use of IP has a significant impact on network efficiency and performance. It is the extended native use of IP in the terrestrial segment of a wireless operator's domain that more readily allows for building a converged network with multiple access technologies. We then discuss the different levels of mobility in the all-IP network. In particular, our focus is on micromobility, and on the issue of seamless localized mobility within the converged network. After reviewing the mobility schemes that have emerged in previous years, we describe a hierarchical mobility management scheme based on multiprotocol label switching (MPLS). The scheme employs an enhanced type of MPLS routers, called label edge mobility agents, and is scalable, efficient, and flexible. It directly inherits the noted capabilities of MPLS in terms of support of QoS, traffic engineering, advanced IP services, and fast restoration. This scheme does not use nodes that are specific to any given wireless technology, and is well suited for gradual deployment.

Multicast handoff agent scheme for micro-mobility in all-IP wireless network

For micro-mobility of multicast group members in an all-IP wireless network, a new scheme has been proposed to reduce the join delay by eliminating the waiting time of the Query message and the random backoff time. Analytical and simulation results show that the scheme offers a much shorter join delay than the existing scheme, especially for a sparse group.

IP-based base stations and soft handoff in all-IP wireless networks

The Internet protocol (IP) can potentially become the universal network-layer protocol over all wireless systems as it already is for wireline packet networks. Such an all-IP wireless and wireline network can bring the proven advantages of IP networking to mobile users. However, realizing an all-IP wireless network introduces many challenges, among which is soft handoff. Two major problems need to be solved in order to support soft handoff. First, multiple streams of the same IP traffic have to be distributed via multiple base stations to a mobile station. Second, pieces of data arriving at the mobile station at the same time from different base stations need to be copies of the same data in order for the mobile station's radio system to correctly combine these different pieces into a single copy. A similar problem also needs to be resolved in the reverse direction from mobile stations to base stations. Solving these problems in a distributed all-IP wireless network remains a challenge. Although solutions exist for today's circuit-switched wireless systems. This article presents a new approach for soft handoff in distributed all-IP wireless networks. It consists of two main parts. First, a new design of IP-based distributed base stations enables mobile stations in multiple cells to be on the same IP subnet and multiple streams of the same data to be distributed via multiple base stations to a mobile without broadcasting/multicasting and with minimal signaling. Second, a novel IP-layer procedure performed by the base stations ensures that the data coming simultaneously from multiple base stations to a mobile station are copies of the same data.