Remote Subscription Research Articles

A Novel Remote Subscription Management Scheme for Embedded UICC

With emerging large volumes of M2M devices, the existing Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) along with its procedures and processes for managing subscriptions will no longer be a cost-efficient and conventional solution. This article describes a novel alternative based on the concept of remote subscription management scheme (RSMS). The RSMS solution meets the new market requirements generated by industries developing machine to machine (M2M) solutions. Based on international standards and mature security technologies, the proposed solution is trustworthy, cost-efficient, conventional, scalable, sustainable, and makes mobile networks a more attractive means of communication for internet of things (IoT).

Mobile multicast source support in PMIPv6 networks

With the widespread use of multimedia contents via mobile nodes (MNs), IP mobile multicast becomes more important for wireless, mobile, and ubiquitous multimedia applications. Until now, many research efforts have been made to provide IP multicast for the MNs. However, the existing mobile multicast schemes mostly focus on the mobility of receivers based on the host-based mobility solution that requires the MN to participate in the mobility management. Recent work has shown that service connectivity for mobile multicast sources is still a problem and attracts very little concern. With the development of the network-based mobility support protocol, mobile multicast source support schemes in Proxy Mobile IPv6 (PMIPv6) networks are needed urgently. In this paper, we propose a base solution (BS) and also a direct multicast routing scheme (DMRS) for mobile multicast source support in PMIPv6 networks. In the BS, the multicast listener discover (MLD) proxy function is adopted to transmit multicast data through the PMIPv6 tunnel. The DMRS can provide locally optimized traffic flows and avoid inefficient routing present in the BS. We evaluate and compare the performance of the proposed schemes with the Mobile IP bidirectional tunneling (MIP-BT) and Mobile IP remote subscription (MIP-RS) schemes by theoretical analysis and also implement the proposed schemes on the test-bed. The numerical results show that the BS and DMRS outperform the MIP-BT and MIP-RS in terms of signaling cost. Meanwhile, the experimental results verify the feasibility and validity of our proposed schemes. Furthermore, we study the optimal PMIPv6 domain size to reduce the total signaling cost for the proposed schemes.

Regional Registration-Based Mobile Multicast Service Management in Mobile IP Networks

We propose and analyze a regional registration based mobile multicast service management scheme which we call URRMoM for efficiently supporting mobile multicast in Mobile IP networks. URRMoM extends the design concept of Remote Subscription (RS) by using mobile multicast agents (MMAs), each covering a number of MHs in its service area through tunneling multicast packets received from the multicast source to them. URRMoM adopts a user-central design allowing each mobile host to determine its optimal MMA service area dynamically depending on its service and mobility characteristics. We develop an analytical model to describe the behavior of a MH operating under URRMoM and derive the optimal service area of the MMA based on the MH's service and mobility characteristics to minimize the total network traffic generated due to multicast packet delivery and multicast tree maintenance. We present analytical results validated by simulation to demonstrate the benefit of our proposed regional registration based mobile multicast service management scheme over existing schemes including RS and RBMoM.

On Multicasting Based on Nested Mobile Router Information in Network Mobility

Mobile IP is a solution to support mobile nodes but it does not handle NEtwork MObility (NEMO). The NEMO Basic Support (NBS) [1] ensures session continuity for all the nodes in a MObile NETwork (MONET). Since the protocol is based on Mobile IP, it inherits from Mobile IP the same fundamental problem such as tunnel convergence, when it is used to support the multicast for NEMO. In this paper, we propose the multicast Route Optimization (RO) scheme in NEMO environments. We suppose that the Mobile Router (MR) has a multicast function and the Nested Mobile Router Information (NeMRI). The NeMRI is used to record a list of the CoAs of all the MRs located below. And it obtains information whether the MRs desire multicast services. Also, we adopt any RO scheme to handle pinball routing. Therefore, we achieve optimal routes for multicasting in NEMO. We also'develop analytic models to evaluate the performance of our scheme. We show much lower multicast tree delay and cost in NEMO compared with other techniques such as Bi-directional Tunneling (BT), Remote Subscription (RS), and Mobile Multicast (MoM) based on the NBS protocol.

A hierarchical multicast protocol in mobile IPv6 networks

In this paper, we propose a hierarchical multicast protocol in Mobile IPv6 networks (HMoM), which utilizes the advantages of hierarchical mobility management in handling unicast routing. The multicast agent is selected dynamically and can be located at any level in a hierarchical network of routers according to the handoff frequency of mobile hosts (MHs). Thus, it can offer the most efficient routing for the MHs that reside at a network for a relatively long period of time, and avoid frequent tree reconstruction for the MHs that perform handoff quickly. Actually, we find that remote subscription, bidirectional tunneling, which proposed by the IETF Mobile IP, and unicast mechanism are the special cases of hierarchical mobile multicast. In addition, we propose a smooth multicast agent handoff mechanism to reduce the disruption of multicast services due to host mobility. A detailed performance evaluation has been done and simulation results show that HMoM has better performance than existing protocols.

Mobile multimedia supports with hierarchical multicast SIP framework on heterogeneous wireless networks

For supporting the mobile host (MH) to be the multicast receivers on wireless networks, the traditional approaches such as the Hierarchical Remote Subscription (HRS) and Bi-directional Tunneling with Mobile Multicast (BT-MoM) integrate the Mobile IP protocol with the IP multicast technique. However, they inherit intrinsic problems to handle mobility and suffer significant delays to rebuild the multicast tree when the MH moves out of the multicast tree, which results in serious playback interruption and quality of service (QoS) degradation for the ongoing multimedia service especially when the MH are scattered over different kinds of wireless networks. In this paper, we propose a cross-layer framework and the Hierarchical Multicast Session Initiation Protocol (HMSIP), which extend the IETF Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) with the concept of multicast SIP session and integrate the underlying IP Multicast QoS routing protocol and the RSVP resource reservation technique, to support mobile multimedia multicasts. This framework significantly reduces handoff delays and deployment costs and hence achieves end-to-end QoS support for MHs on heterogeneous wireless networks. Further, we mathematically analyze handoff delays of the HRS, BT-MOM and HMSIP schemes. Moreover, simulation results show that the HMSIP can significantly achieve much more stable and lower handoff delays than those of the BT-MOM and HRS only with a small proportion of extra bandwidth than the bandwidth-optimal HRS, thereby supporting higher numbers of handoffs without interrupting multimedia playback of the mobile multicast activity. Tradeoffs between costs for deploying HMSIP Proxies in the framework and corresponding performances of the HMSIP families are discussed. Finally, multimedia QoS improvements of MHs are shown to emphasize advantages by integrating RSVP in this HMSIP framework.

MMOM: Efficient Mobile Multicast Support Based on the Mobility of Mobile Hosts

The IETF Mobile IP is the dominant standard for IP mobility support and defines two multicast options for providing multicast to mobile hosts (MHs): remote subscription (RS) and bi-directional tunneling (BT). Since the two options have complementary advantages, improved multicast support can be achieved by combining the two options.In this paper, in order to synthesize the strong points of the two options, we propose a new approach, mMOM, which selectively uses two IETF multicast options based on the mobility pattern of MHs. In mMOM, the RS option is used only when MH is looked upon as being relatively immobile. Otherwise, the BT option is used. Therefore, an optimal routing path is provided for as a long time as possible, so the multicast tree management overhead can be greatly reduced.For performance analysis, we use a new analytical model based on queuing theory. Based on analytical results, the multicast tree management overhead and the expected number of tunneling paths are taken as metrics for performance comparison. This analytical model and results can help multicast service providers to analyze cost effectiveness and to design new protocols for supporting mobile multicast.

Mobile hop-by-hop multicast routing

This work focuses on mobility management in a multicast environment. Traditional solutions, based either on bi-directional tunneling or on remote subscription, have different drawbacks. We propose a different approach, which is based on a recursive unicast addressing scheme. The M-HBH protocol (mobile hop-by-hop multicast routing) reduces triangular routing, avoids encapsulation and tunneling, supports asymmetric routes, and limits the frequency of tree reconstruction, for both source and receiver mobility. We evaluate the performance of the M-HBH protocol by comparing it with traditional solutions using mathematical models and simulations on a realistic Internet-like topology.

Scalable multicast protocol in IP-based mobile networks

In this paper, we present an alternative design, RBMoM (Range-Based Mobile Multicast), for efficiently supporting multicast for mobile hosts on the Internet. The current version of Mobile IP proposes two approaches to support mobile multicast, which are remote subscription and bi-directional tunneling. The former provides the shortest routes for delivery of multicast datagrams to mobile hosts; the latter hides host mobility from all other members of the group (therefore, no any overhead in the multicast tree maintenance). RBMoM intends to trade off between the shortest delivery path and the frequency of the multicast tree reconfiguration by controlling the service range of the multicast home agent (MHA). Actually, we will find that remote subscription and bi-directional tunneling are the extremes of RBMoM. From the point of view of the MHA and the service range concepts, RBMoM is a generalization of both approaches and a unifying mobile multicast approach. The simulation results show that RBMoM can adapt to the fluctuation of both host movement and the number of mobile group members, and outperforms the current two Mobile IP multicast solutions.

Supporting IP Multicast for Mobile Hosts

IP Multicast is an efficient mechanism of delivering a large amount of data to a group of members over the Internet. Link sharing is achieved by a multicast tree that connects all group members. Mobile IP is the proposed standard for IP mobility support and provides two schemes for mobile hosts to receive multicast packets, either through tunneling from the home agent (called home subscription) or by joining multicast groups in the visited foreign network (called remote subscription). The former compromises the link sharing of IP Multicast and uses sub-optimal routing, while the latter requires the foreign agent to be a multicast router and may incur frequent modifications of the multicast tree due to host mobility. This paper introduces multicast agents for IP Multicast to mobile hosts. A multicast agent is a multicast router that serves multiple (foreign) networks. A foreign agent in the service area of a multicast agent notifies the multicast agent of the multicast groups that visiting mobile hosts belong to. The multicast agent joins these multicast groups and tunnels multicast packets for these groups to the foreign agent. The foreign agent delivers multicast packets to mobile hosts using local multicast whenever possible. Simulation results show that the delay and the cost of delivery per multicast packet in our approach is close to the optimal case in remote subscription. Our approach has a lower disruption of multicast services due to mobility when groups are sparse.

Mobile multicast with routing optimization for recipient mobility

This paper explores the issues of multicasting for mobile hosts using IETF Mobile IP. Mobile IP suggests two approaches for mobile multicasting, namely, remote subscription (MIP-RS) and bi-directional tunneling (MIP-BT). While having the advantage of optimal routing efficiency, MIP-RS uses a naive join-and-leave policy for mobile hosts to participate in the groups of interest and causes serious packet losses while roaming. MIP-BT is free from packet losses due to roaming; however, MIP-BT and its modification MoM suffer from the triangle routing problem, resulting in inefficient routing and wastage of system resources. We propose a new mobile multicasting protocol called mobile multicast with routing optimization (MMROP) that employs a modified join-and-leave mechanism, and routes the missing data sequence due to the "out-of-synch" problem to other agents in the adjacent networks via tunneling for roaming terminals. With MMROP, the mobility agent (foreign or home agent) in Mobile IF, in addition to mobility management, is extended to assist multicasting for mobiles. The mobility agent is not necessarily a multicast router. From the perspective of the multicast router, the mobility agent is a group participant, and from the mobiles, the agent serves as the proxy of multicast services. As a result, MMROP enjoys no packet losses from roaming as in MIP-BT, and optimal routing efficiency as in MIP-RS. We also conducted a simulation study and developed a cost analytical model to evaluate the performance of MMROP, in comparison to MIP-RS, MIP-BT, and MoM. The results demonstrate that MMROP has optimal routing efficiency, low delivery cost and high robustness, as compared to other approaches.

AMTree: an active approach to multicasting in mobile networks

Active networks (ANs) are a new paradigm in computer networking. In ANs, programs can be injected into routers and switches to extend the functionalities of the network. This allows programmers to enhance existing protocols and enables the rapid deploymentof new protocols. Little work has been done in the area of multicast routing in heterogeneous environments. In this paper, we propose AMTree, an AN-based multicast tree that is bidirectional, optimizable on demand and adaptive to source migration. We show how ANs can be exploited to enable multicast tree to be modified and optimized efficiently. By filtering unnecessary signaling messages, maintaining minimal storage at routers and incorporating features from shared-tree methods we are able to achieve a scalable solution. Furthermore, we introduce an AN-based optimisation algorithm that is executed on demand by receivers. Besides that we introduce a fast rejoin protocol for receiver migration that makes no assumptions about the existence of multicast services in foreign networks. The performance of AMTree is compared to those of the bidirectional home agent (HA) method and the remote subscription method. We found that compared to the bidirectional HA method AMTree has a much lower handoff and end-to-end latency. Unlike the bidirectional HA method where end-to-end latency increases as the mobile host (MH) migrates further away from its HA, AMTree's latency remains fairly constant. We found that after optimization, the resulting tree's end-to-end latency to be comparable to the remote subscription method but without the need for building a new multicast tree after each handoff.

Efficient algorithm for mobile multicast using anycast group

The authors present a novel and efficient multicast algorithm that aims to reduce delay and communication cost for the registration between mobile nodes and mobility agents and solicitation for foreign agent services based on the mobile IP. The protocol applies anycast group technology to support multicast transmissions for both mobile nodes and home/foreign agents. Mobile hosts use anycast tunnelling to connect to the nearest available home/foreign agent where an agent is able to forward the multicast messages by selecting an anycast route to a multicast router so as to reduce the end-to-end delay. The performance analysis and experiments demonstrated that the proposed algorithm is able to enhance the performance over existing remote subscription and bidirectional tunnelling approaches regardless of the locations of mobile nodes/hosts.

Design of a remote data subscription mechanism

The CERN 26 GeV Proton Synchrotron (PS) accelerator complex produces a sequence of different beams in cycles of a duration of 1.2 sec or multiple of it. A Main Control Room operator, supervising the functioning of (part of) an accelerator for a particular beam, needs to coherently display on his workstation the beam-dependent data, in 'synchronism' with this particular cycle (within a certain time delay). The classical data collection via synchronous Remote Procedure Calls cannot fully answer to these requirements. The PS Data Subscription Mechanism addresses the above-mentioned problems: it allows a client application in a workstation to dynamically request accelerator data synchronised to a particular beam; the client collects data related to the same beam from different front-ends.