IP Flow Mobility Research Articles

Performance and Energy Conservation of 3GPP IFOM Protocol for Dual Connectivity in Heterogeneous LTE–WLAN Network

For the 5th Generation networks, Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is considering standardization of various solutions for traffic aggregation using licensed and unlicensed spectrum, to meet the rising data demands. IP Flow Mobility (IFOM) is a multi-access connectivity solution/protocol standardized by the Internet Engineering Task Force and 3GPP in Release 10. It enables concurrent access for an User Equipment (UE) to Heterogeneous Networks (HetNets) such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) and IEEE 802.11 Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN). IFOM enabled UEs (IeUs) have multiple interfaces to connect to HetNets. They can have concurrent flows with different traffic types over these networks and can seamlessly switch the flows from one network to the other. In this paper, we focus on two objectives. First is to investigate the performance parameters, e.g. throughput, latency, tunnelling overhead, packet loss, energy cost, etc. of IeUs in HetNets of LTE and WLAN. We have proposed a novel mechanism to maximize the throughput of IeUs achieving a significant throughput gain with low latency for the IeUs. We have explored further and observed a throughput-energy trade-off for low data rate flows. To address this, we also propose a smart energy efficient and throughput optimization algorithm for the IeUs, resulting in a substantial reduction in energy cost, while maintaining the high throughput at lower latency and satisfying the Quality of Service requirements of the IeUs.

Proportional and Preemption-Enabled Traffic Offloading for IP Flow Mobility: Algorithms and Performance Evaluation

IP flow mobility (IFOM) enables a user equipment to offload data traffic at the IP flow level. Although the procedure of IFOM-based flow offloading has been specified by 3GPP, how many IP flows should be offloaded and when offloading should be performed are not defined. Consequently, IP flows may be routed to a target access network that has a strong signal strength but with backhaul congestion or insufficient access capability. In this paper, we propose two algorithms, referred to as proportional offloading (PO) and proportional and preemption-enabled offloading (PPO), respectively, for IP flow offloading in hybrid cellular and wireless local area networks. The PO algorithm decides an optimal proportion of IP flows, which could be offloaded by considering available resources at the target access network. In the PPO algorithm, both service continuity and network utilization are taken into consideration. Furthermore, a detailed analytical model is developed in order to evaluate the behavior of the proposed algorithms. The analytical model is validated through extensive simulations. The results show that by dynamically adjusting the percentage of traffic flows to be offloaded, PO can reduce blocking probability and increase resource utilization. PPO further improves the performance at the cost of slightly higher offloading overhead.

IP Flow Mobility in the Industry: From An Economic Perspective

The popularity of social media together with the advancement of mobile Internet applications enabling the uploading of data plays a dominant role in the entire Internet traffic. IP flow mobility (IFOM) is proposed as an effective means to enhance the system capacity by offloading data from the cellular network to WiFi or Femtocells or other complementary networks. Although IFOM has been extensively investigated during the past few years, most of these studies, however, are concerned with IFOM technical issues only; little work regarding the IFOM application has been done from the service providers’ perspective. Unlike previous research, in this paper, we address the economic issue involved with the IFOM technology. Specifically, competition among multiple service providers supporting or not supporting IFOM are explored, and a game model for the competition is developed. The Nash equilibrium for the game model is then analyzed. Based on the analysis, an algorithm for Nash equilibrium computation is proposed. Also, numerical experiments are conducted to determine the factors that affect the market share and profit of the service providers. We believe that this research paper will shed light on service providers for the promotion and application of IFOM technology.

Weighted proportional fairness and pricing based resource allocation for uplink offloading using IP flow mobility

Mobile data offloading has been proposed as a solution for the network congestion problem that is continuously aggravating due to the increase in mobile data demand. However, the majority of the state-of-the-art is focused on the downlink offloading, while the change of mobile user habits, like mobile content creation and uploading, makes uplink offloading a rising issue. In this work we focus on the uplink offloading using IP Flow Mobility (IFOM). IFOM allows a LTE mobile User Equipment (UE) to maintain two concurrent data streams, one through LTE and the other through WiFi access technology, that presents uplink limitations due to the inherent fairness design of IEEE 802.11 DCF by employing the CSMA/CA scheme with a binary exponential backoff algorithm. In this paper, we propose a weighted proportionally fair bandwidth allocation algorithm for the data volume that is being offloaded through WiFi, in conjunction with a pricing-based rate allocation for the rest of the data volume needs of the UEs that are transmitted through the LTE uplink. We aim to improve the energy efficiency of the UEs and to increase the offloaded data volume under the concurrent use of access technologies that IFOM allows. In the weighted proportionally fair WiFi bandwidth allocation, we consider both the different upload data needs of the UEs, along with their LTE spectrum efficiency and propose an access mechanism that improves the use of WiFi access in uplink offloading. In the LTE part, we propose a two-stage pricing-based rate allocation under both linear and exponential pricing approaches, aiming to satisfy all offloading UEs regarding their LTE uplink access. We theoretically analyse the proposed algorithms and evaluate their performance through simulations. We compare their performance with the 802.11 DCF access scheme and with a state-of-the-art access algorithm under different number of offloading UEs and for both linear and exponential pricing-based rate allocation for the LTE uplink. Through the evaluation of energy efficiency, offloading capabilities and throughput performance, we provide an improved uplink access scheme for UEs that operate with IFOM for uplink offloading.

Resource Allocation Techniques for Heterogeneous Networks Under User Misbehavior

In this letter, we focus on the uplink offloading with IP flow mobility (IFOM). With IFOM a user equipment (UE) is able to maintain concurrently two data streams, one through LTE and the other through WiFi. We consider the existence of malicious UEs that aim to exploit the WiFi bandwidth against their truthful peers, in order to upload less data through the energy demanding LTE uplink and a reputation based method is proposed to combat the selfish operation. The WiFi bandwidth is allocated based on weighted proportional fairness and the LTE rate is defined through an exponential pricing algorithm. We theoretically analyze our approach and evaluate the performance of the malicious and the truthful UEs in terms of energy efficiency and throughput, through simulations. We show that while the malicious UEs present better energy efficiency before being detected, their performance is significantly degraded with the proposed reaction method.

A Home Agent Initiated Handover Solution for Fine-Grained Offloading in Future Mobile Internet Architectures

The currently standardized IP Flow Mobility (IFOM) solution in 3GPP is strictly User Equipment (UE) centric as the operator must firstly deliver the flow routing policies to the UE, and then the UE must provide these policies to the Packet Data Network Gateway (PGW). Network-based (NB) solutions try to eliminate the above limitations and create an operator centric flow management framework. This paper is committed to give an overview of existing offloading techniques, to introduce the power of network-based solutions, and to propose a MIPv6/DSMIPv6 based NB-IFOM scheme relying on Home Agent initiated flow binding and aiming to enable operators to enforce IP flow routing policies without involving the UE first, such making able the PCRF (Policy and Charging Rules Function) to decide on the flow routing policy based on e.g., the available resources in the network, before signaling the policies to the UE. The authors have implemented their proposal, and performed an extensive evaluation in a hybrid real-emulated tested environment.

IP Flow Mobility Trigger Mechanism in Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

With the Multi Access Packet Data Network Connectivity and IP flow mobility introduced by 3GPP, mobile devices with multiple wireless interfaces can connect to multiple access networks simultaneously, meanwhile allowing dynamic allocation of different IP flows to different access systems corresponding to their requirements. In order to enable IP flow mobility, an effective IP flow mobility trigger mechanism is indispensible. However, among the existing technical standard and current literatures in IP flow mobility, almost no research involves the trigger mechanism and decision algorithm. This paper proposes a mechanism for network-based IP flow mobility, which includes a trigger process and a network selection decision algorithm based on each IP flow. Simulation results validate the flexibility and efficiency of our proposed mechanism, which can achieve a better network load balancing as well as a higher user satisfaction.

A survey on mobile data offloading: technical and business perspectives

Over the last few years, data traffic over cellular networks has seen an exponential rise, primarily due to the explosion of smartphones, tablets, and laptops. This increase in data traffic on cellular networks has caused an immediate need for offloading traffic for optimum performance of both voice and data services. As a result, different innovative solutions have emerged to manage data traffic. Some of the key technologies include Wi-Fi, femtocells, and IP flow mobility. The growth of data traffic is also creating challenges for the backhaul of cellular networks; therefore, solutions such as core network offloading and media optimization are also gaining popularity. This article aims to provide a survey of mobile data offloading technologies including insights from the business perspective as well.

Data offloading techniques in 3GPP Rel-10 networks: A tutorial

The realization of high data rates in LTE technology over an all IP network means an ever increasing load on packet data networks. 3GPP has defined data offloading as a key solution to cope with this challenge. Data offloading has been a critical area of study in 3GPP Release-10. The 3GPP Evolved Packet Core (EPC) has been defined to be expansive; for example, it is designed to work in conjunction with non-3GPP access networks, femto cells etc., This diversity causes more scenarios to tackle, but it also provides solutions in the ways of offloading data from the EPC. This article is a tutorial on three such mechanisms, namely Local IP Access (LIPA), Selected IP Traffic Offload (SIPTO) and IP Flow Mobility (IFOM). The article starts with an overview of data offloading methods. The basics and key concepts of each method are summarized before giving the requirements, architecture and procedures with high-level message flows. The article ends with a brief evaluation of the mechanisms and references for the reader interested in further reading.

IP Flow Mobility in PMIPv6 Based Networks: Solution Design and Experimental Evaluation

The ability of offloading selected IP data traffic from 3G to WLAN access networks is considered a key feature in the upcoming 3GPP specifications, being the main goal to alleviate data congestion in cellular networks while delivering a positive user experience. Lately, the 3GPP has adopted solutions that enable mobility of IP-based wireless devices relocating mobility functions from the terminal to the network. To this end, the IETF has standardized Proxy Mobile IPv6 (PMIPv6), a protocol capable to hide often complex mobility procedures from the mobile devices. This paper, in line with the mentioned offload requirement, further extends PMIPv6 to support dynamic IP flow mobility management across access wireless networks according to operator policies. Considering energy consumption as a critical aspect for hand-held devices and smart-phones, we assess the feasibility of the proposed solution and provide an experimental analysis showing the cost (in terms of energy consumption) of simultaneous packet transmission/reception using multiple network interfaces. The end-to-end system design has been implemented and validated by means of an experimental network setup.

Editorial: Special Issue on “Advances in Mobile IPv6 and Network-Based Localized Mobility Management”

Wireless mobile communications are rapidly becoming indispensable components of our life with the widespread use of portable devices. Mobile IPv6 (MIPv6) has been recognized as a standard protocol that handles the mobility management and provides the seamless mobile communications. Moreover, it is expected that MIPv6 will open the Mobile Internet Age where uses can get online anywhere, anytime regardless on their movements. Despite such a potential, MIPv6 suffers from some problems such as long handover latency and high signaling overhead. As a result, novel approaches such as Fast-Handovers for MIPv6 (FMIPv6) and Hierarchical MIPv6 (HMIPv6) have been proposed. Recently, Proxy MIPv6 (PMIPv6) has gained significant attention due to its network-based localized mobility management (NETLMM), which allows mobile devices not to be involved in mobility management. The objective of this special issue is to bring together the researchers from academia and industry as well as practitioners to discuss the latest research advances in the area of MIPv6 and NETLMM. This special issue is composed of total eleven papers, some of which are extended from the outstanding papers presented at the 2nd International Workshop on Mobile IPv6 and Network-based Localized Mobility Management (MobiWorld 2010). They cover the recent technologies for wireless mobile communications. The issue starts with four papers addressing Proxy Mobile IPv6 (PMIPv6), which is a recent approach for IP mobility management. The paper “Enhancing QoS of Mobile Devices by a New Handover Process in PMIPv6 Networks” introduces a new handover process to further improve the handover performance of PMIPv6, while providing detailed numerical analysis in terms of handover latency, packet loss, and buffering cost. The paper “IP Flow Mobility in PMIPv6 Based Networks: Solution Design and Experimental Evaluation”

Optimized Access Network Selection in a Combined WLAN/LTE Environment

Multimode terminals equipped with multiple radio access technologies are becoming increasingly popular. At the same time, network operators and service providers seek opportunities to deliver seamless services cost effectively, leveraging a variety of radio access technologies using both licensed and unlicensed spectrum. In order to standardize the operations of such complex environments 3GPP is currently working on IP flow mobility and mobile data offload solutions. This article proposes and evaluates a new access network selection procedure in such a combined WLAN/LTE environment. The proposed solution takes not only parameters available in the mobile node and its current and candidate access networks into account, but performs an optimization on the heterogeneous wireless network level as well. An optimization model based on an approximate solution to the well-known bin packing problem is presented. Also, there is a signaling scheme for distribution handling presented. Results from simulations performed in OPNET Modeler show improvements compared to basing handover decisions on locally available information only.

IP flow mobility: smart traffic offload for future wireless networks

The recent proliferation of smartphone-based mobile Internet services has created an extraordinary growth in data traffic over cellular networks. This growth has fostered interest in exploring alternatives to alleviate data congestion while delivering a positive user experience. It is known that a very small number of users and applications cause a big percentage of the traffic load. Hence, adopting smarter traffic management mechanisms is one of the considered alternatives. These mechanisms allow telecom operators to move selected IP data traffic, for instance, between the cellular infrastructure and the WLAN infrastructure, which is considered a key feature in the latest 3GPP and IETF specifications. This article presents and compares two possible approaches to IP flow mobility offloading that are currently being considered by the IETF. The first one is based on extending existing client-based IP mobility solutions to allow flow mobility where the user terminal is fully involved in the mobility process, and the second one is based on extending current network- based IP mobility solutions where the user terminal is not aware of the mobility.