Context-aware Mobility Management Research Articles

Mobility management in HetNets: a learning-based perspective

Heterogeneous networks (HetNets) are expected to be a key feature of long-term evolution (LTE)-advanced networks and beyond and are essential for providing ubiquitous broadband user throughput. However, due to different coverage ranges of base stations (BSs) in HetNets, the handover performance of a user equipment (UE) may be significantly degraded, especially in scenarios where high-velocity UE traverse through small cells. In this article, we propose a context-aware mobility management (MM) procedure for small cell networks, which uses reinforcement learning techniques and inter-cell coordination for improving the handover and throughput performance of UE. In particular, the BSs jointly learn their long-term traffic loads and optimal cell range expansion and schedule their UE based on their velocities and historical data rates that are exchanged among the tiers. The proposed approach is shown not only to outperform the classical MM in terms of throughput but also to enable better fairness. Using the proposed learning-based MM approaches, the UE throughput is shown to improve by 80% on the average, while the handover failure probability is shown to reduce up to a factor of three.

Design and analysis of an IEEE 802.21-based mobility management architecture: a context-aware approach

Broadband wireless technologies will soon become an integral part of daily life. In this paper we present the design rationale of a context-aware mobility management architecture for seamless handover in heterogeneous networks. Our proposal is a new cross-layer and interactive approach to seamless handover of users and their services. We present a simple though effective analytical model in typical deployment scenarios in heterogeneous networks with the use of the IEEE Media Independent Handover services. Such analytical model is used to evaluate the resulting handover delay when deploying common mobility protocols in our architecture, such as Mobile IP, Hierarchical MIP, and Proxy MIP.

Vertical Mobility Management Architectures in Wireless Networks: A Comprehensive Survey and Future Directions

Mobile users and applications are putting pressure on wireless network operators to improve the seamless handover of devices and services. Strong business competition for subscribers, along with the ever increasing availability of wireless networks will give nomadic and mobile users the opportunity, and systems the power, to make better handover decisions. In this paper, we present a comprehensive review of the literature on mobility management architectures for seamless handover of mobile users in heterogeneous networks. We describe the design rationale for selected architectures, with an in-depth analysis of their main goals, assumptions, and requirements. We also provide directions for further work in this field by highlighting the mandatory requirements and the features of future architectures. We then present a new architecture called Context-Aware Mobility Management System (CAMMS). CAMMS is a new cross-layer, context-aware and interactive approach to seamless handover of users and services. With that proposal, we identified the essential functional entities that must be part of future architectures.