Evaluation of CELLULAR IP mobility tracking procedures

The performance evaluation of mobile packet switching networks is nowadays an important topic in mobile communications. In the INTERNET, a classical packet switching environment, a hierarchical approach to the mobility management problem has been followed, focusing mainly on macro-level and micro-level mobility: while MOBILE IP provides a good framework for allowing users to roam between domains, several protocols have been proposed handling local mobility and giving a basic support of intra-domain roaming, e.g., CELLULAR IP. In order to minimize signalling, and scale to support a growing number of mobile subscribers, CELLULAR IP supports the notion of passive connectivity, based on the separation between active and idle users. Roughly speaking, location management is executed for idle mobile stations, while route-update management is performed for active mobile stations. Active state is supervised by a timer which, together with a suitable active state timeout, lead to an adequate mobility management. The aim of this paper is to evaluate analytically the signalling load of the CELLULAR IP protocol for location management (Idle state) and route-update management (Active state). 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.