Application of renewal theory to call handover counting and dynamic location management in cellular mobile networks

• Published in: European journal of operational research Vol. 204; no. 1; pp. 1 - 13
• Main Authors: Rodríguez-Dagnino, Ramón M., Takagi, Hideaki
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.07.2010; Elsevier; Elsevier Sequoia S.A
• Series: European Journal of Operational Research
• Subjects: Applied probability; Applied probability Wireless networks Location management Handovers; Applied sciences; Computer science; control theory; systems; Computer systems and distributed systems. User interface; Exact sciences and technology; Handovers; Location management; Mobile communications networks; Optimization; Optimization techniques; Probability; Software; Studies; Traffic flow; Wireless networks; Applied probability; Wireless networks; Handovers; Location management; Probabilistic approach; Mobility; Minimization; Cell network; Context aware; Distributed system; Network interfaces; Modeling; Optimization; Renewal theory; Time management; Wireless network; Localization; Counting; Mobile computing; Mathematical programming
• ISSN: 0377-2217; 1872-6860
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2009.07.015

Mobility management in wireless cellular networks is one of the main issues for resource optimization. It is aimed to keep track of Mobile Stations (MSs) in the different Location Areas (LAs) or Registration Areas (RAs) for an efficient call delivery. The optimization issues of these location strategies look for a minimization of the generated signaling traffic. We describe the three basic strategies for location management: distance-based, time-based and movement-based, and their corresponding optimization cost. We emphasize that counting the number of wireless cell crossings or handovers occurring in the call duration time or during inter-call times is a fundamental issue for mobility management analysis. We present the main approaches in the literature to deal with these problems with a special emphasis to renewal theory to model the probabilistic structure of these optimization problems.