An Efficient Handover Technique for 4G Networks

M. Alzubi, A. Amr, and M. Anan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Dept.
Purdue University Calumet, Hammond USA
manan@purdue.edu

Abstract The IEEE802.21 protocol has provided a mechanism
to perform a seamless handover within heterogeneous net-
works guaranteeing a higher level of mobility. In this paper, we
discuss different characteristics and challenges facing 4G mo-
bility. We propose an efficient user zoning handover technique
based on the IEEE802.21 protocol. The proposed approach
connects users to a preset network upon entering a zone. The
process is guided by the MIIS server.

Keywords handover; 4G mobility; user zoning; IEEE802.21

I. INTRODUCTION

IEEE802.21 [11] is a standard that was created in order to
facilitate heterogeneous handovers between IEEE 802 and
non-IEEE802 access networks regardless of the network
features. The IEEE 802.21 standard defines the MIH (Media
Independent Handover) mechanism to enable the optimiza-
tion of handover.
Throughout research activities, handover procedure has
been enhanced by incorporating mechanisms for service
continuity, mobility policies, power saving, and handover
duration. A mobility manager is developed to lower han-
dover delay for both IEEE802 to non-IEEE802 and
IEEE802 to IEEE802 handover cases. The claimed im-
provement is significant compared to regular handover de-
lay.
The handover procedure consists of two stages: the
preparation and execution. The required resources in the
target network are prepared before transferring the device to
it and the data path is switched from the source to the target
path after the device moves to the new network.
A mobility module within the next generation network
architectural framework should be able to incorporate the
following high level mobility aspects [1]:
Terminal Mobility is interpreted as the ability of a
terminal to change its location while maintaining ac-
tive communications. In heterogeneous networks,
terminal mobility is classified according to the type
of handover that can be performed. Horizontal han-
dovers is a type of handover where a terminal is
transferred between cells of the same technology
network. In vertical handovers, a terminal is trans-
ferred between different access network types per-
forming inter-technology handover.
Personal Mobility is the ability of the end user to
compose and receive calls and services at any loca-
tion or terminal. However, from the networks point
view, personal mobility is represented by the unique-
ness of the end user identity in terms of number and
address which makes each user distinct from other
users over the network [4].
Service Mobility is the portability of the service envi-
ronment or parts of it such as appearance, features,
and user interface across networks or terminals. In
other words, it is the users ability to maintain servic-
es regardless of the location of the user or the termin-
al. Service mobility is not limited to the moving ser-
vices across network domains but also includes the
discovery of change in devices at which more servic-
es can be executed [1].
Profile Mobility is usually considered as part of ser-
vice mobility. It is concerned with the mobility of
personalized information and features of services
across terminals and networks. This implies that us-
ers can access their user profiles and user preferences
from any terminal and any device. Lately, profile
mobility is partially dependent on users terminal.
These profiles and personal information are stored
locally and are being synchronized among the servic-
es.
Session Mobility implies the transferability of an ac-
tive session from one terminal to another. The availa-
bility of different terminals with different capabilities
has introduced the concept of session mobility. For
example, a video call can be transferred from a one
device to a different one with higher visual resolution
or better audio quality.

In order to optimize mobility among the communications
system, all mentioned aspects have to be taken into consid-
eration and optimized individually through a comprehensive
mobility management protocol.
Many R&D institutions continue to provide solutions
and enhancements in order to improve performance and
compatibility of the handover procedure with heterogeneous
networks towards approximate optimization.
In this paper, we discuss different mobility aspects along
with issues related to mobility management. Afterwards, we
present a brief overview 4G general architecture. Finally,
we propose a user zoning handover technique based on the
IEEE 802.21 protocol.
2010 Fourth International Conference on Next Generation Mobile Applications, Services and Technologies
978-0-7695-4121-1/10 $26.00 2010 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/NGMAST.2010.26
79

II. MOBILITY MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES

Mobility management is a critical aspect of 4G. There are
several challenges and issues regarding mobility in 4G net-
works:

A. Choice of Technology

This issue is associated with the ABC (Always best con-
nected) principle which implies that a user has to be con-
nected to the best available connection at all time. The ar-
chitecture of 4G networks is based on combining multiple
different access technology for the user to be connected
over.
The choice of which network to connect to is dependent
on many parameters such as resources availability, network
capacity, required bandwidth and types of services provided
by the network. In addition, the type of application the user
is running is important during the handover where stability
and requirements are provided through the new link. [8]
All of these parameters are taken into consideration in
the handover algorithm. The algorithm determines which
network to initially connect to as well as which network to
perform a handover towards.

B. Location Management

Location management enables the network to locate the
users instantaneous point of attachment for connection de-
livery purposes. Location management is divided into two
main functions:
1. Location Registration which keeps the network aware
of changes at the point of attachment of each individual
user among the network.
2. Call Delivery at time of a connection request and in
order to deliver the connection to the specified user. The
network is queried for the user location profile so the
current user position is retrieved [9].

Location management is dependent on a database system
as well as a signaling system, where it is independent of the
protocol. This requires location management functions in
4G systems to be compatible with the signaling procedures
and database formation of each network.

C. Mobility Context Management

Context is defined as any information that can be used to
characterize the situation of an entity, where terminals, ap-
plications and networks will be required to provide informa-
tion about themselves, their surroundings and their situation
[4].
Context information can be static or dynamic. This im-
plies that it exhibits temporal characteristics, regarding con-
text values about past, present as well as predicted future
values. Context information cannot be assumed perfect as it
may present contradicting, incomplete or even incorrect
information due to various reasons such as faulty sensor
readings, or rapid change in context information. [10]

D. Paging

Paging is sending essential messages to update location in-
formation of a user in order to be used to route calls and
data sessions. Due to power limitations of mobile devices,
paging is required to be as efficient as possible. Several cells
are combined together as one paging area. The device is
required to update its location not when changing its cell but
when changing the paging area. When an incoming call is
received, paging is performed to all cells of the devices
paging area. Different paging concepts have been proposed.
Sending paging request to all cells of the paging area simul-
taneously, or sending paging request sequentially to the pag-
ing area cells in a decreasing order dependent on the likelih-
ood of existence in that cell. [1]

E. Moving Group Formations

The moving formation of a multi-user session is a promi-
nent component of future networks. Several network users
form a temporary moving cluster and network hierarchies
while traveling. Such groups of users are called a cluster.
Users within a cluster are usually joined into a unified net-
work, implying a highly dynamic behavior, functions such
as handover will deal with cluster in a different behavior to
result a reduction in network and sever overhead. Research
is focused on enhancing the systems intelligence to discov-
er a group behavior. Accordingly special procedures will be
executed resulting in performance improvement and system
enhancement.
Most of the wireless communication systems are based
on cell formation structures. Typically, the network is di-
vided into cells where each cell is responsible for contacting
the mobile units within its limits. The cells capacity is de-
fined by the number of physical resources over which com-
munication channels are being structured over. According to
that, each cell is limited to a certain number of users to host
at a time. While coverage of different technologies is grow-
ing broader every day, the same geographic area is covered
by more than one technology. In 4G systems, overlapping
coverage is being used to maintain the ABC principle. For
example, in the case of a stadium, when a game is taking
place, a significantly large number of users have to be
hosted and have their connectivity needs satisfied. Aiming
to reduce the overhead, and to manage traffic over existing
networks, we suggest having the user assigned to specific
network when entering the cell area. Handover will be per-
formed and the device will be forced to connect through a
preset networks according to its capability and capacity to
hold a number of users.
80


Figure 1. Heterogeneous networks architecture.


III. GENERAL ARCHITECTURE

4G all-IP network provides a universal common inter-
face to satisfy the access requests from various types of mo-
bile system. The unitary form of accessing is impossible
with the development of the global network. Thus all-IP
network has to face different access systems, terminal tech-
nologies, services and roaming protocol. Services are pro-
vided partly by mobile devices themselves and the Service
Domain. The Network Domain is responsible of routing and
bit pipe management. Challenges facing this model are
mainly related to the QoS, Security and Mobility Manage-
ment (MM) support [4].
The architecture in Fig. 1 represents heterogeneous net-
works. It contains WLAN, WiMAX, GPRS/UMTS, and E-
UTRAN access networks. All of these are connected to IP
network through an evolved packet core (EPC) [5] which is
an evolved 3GPP core network.
To perform a media independent handover, the handover
process is performed in three stages or mechanisms: han-
dover initiation, handover preparation and handover execu-
tion. The handover initiation involves old link configuration
procedures where each device has to be configured to send
radio measurement reports. These measurements and reports
provide information about the need of performing an urgent
handover if specific thresholds are crossed. Otherwise, it
will send periodic informational messages. New link dis-
covery is also performed in this stage which can be realized
with specific triggers from available link layers.
During the handover preparation, additional networks
coverage scanning takes place which may involve a query
for information from an information server. In case of
access to new network resources, the device must authenti-
cate itself to the network before proceeding. If the device is
authenticated at the new network, QoS context must be
transferred for a resource availability check.
Finally, handover execution takes place which was not
included by the IEEE 802.21.
The handover procedure is based on the media-
independent handover function (MIHF). The MIHF exists in
both the mobile node (MN) and the network node protocol
stack. It provides the three types of services: (1) Media in-
dependent event service (MIES); (2) Media independent
command service (MICS); and (3) Media independent in-
formation service (MIIS).
Each of the services provided by the MIHF has a flow
direction with certain responsibilities. MIES reports events
such as link deterioration and link unavailability to upper
network layers. MICS transfers control commands to lower
layer from higher ones. Configuration of network devices
and scanning for available networks are examples of com-
mands ordered by MICS. MIIS is responsible of providing
the mechanisms to retrieve information that aides the han-
dover decision. Static link layer parameters are handled by
MIIS such as channel information and the medium access
control (MAC) address of the access point (AP).

IV. PROPOSED HANDOVER APPROACH

Typically, handover preparation stage includes: informa-
tion query from the MIIS server concerning the access net-
works in the vicinity of the MN, additional scanning com-
mands towards the MN, in addition to charging policies and
networks priority order. Our proposed user zoning approach
proposes amending the priority order of access networks
covering the surroundings of the MN in the favor of a cer-
tain network. The MN will be forced to perform the han-
dover towards this network. In order to apply user zoning
concept over MIH, information about target zones has to be
provided by the MIIS server under which the zone is lo-
cated.
We suggest updating the MIIS server database concern-
ing specific zones such as stadiums when games are held,
81

where a large number of audiences are expected to enter this
zone generating a huge amount of urgent traffic over all
available networks. The user zoning concept aims to optim-
ize the handover procedure by extending the MIIS privileg-
es, where it will be capable of balancing the amount of traf-
fic on each available network.
Fig. 2 shows the three stages that handover procedure
has to go through: initiation, preparation, and execution. In
the initiation process, important changes in the link quality
are reported. The user zoning handover procedure works as
follows:
A. The mobile unit is pre-configured to generate triggers
towards the network. The pre-configuration of these
thresholds is usually set by the PoS (Point-of-Service)
which is in our case the WiMAX PoS. When the connec-
tion is established, the PoS issues a configuration mes-
sage to be sent to the mobile node
(MIH_configure_link_REQ). This message states the
thresholds for the connection parameters under which
the device generates a report and sends it back to the
PoS. Upon receiving the configuration message, the
wireless device has to send a confirmation message to
the WiMAX PoS (MIH_configure_link_CNF).


B. After that, the device starts to send a periodic informa-
tion messages stating signal strength measurements. The
WiMAX PoS will be aware of the device status at all
time. As far as QoS requirements and other significant
parameters in case of crossing thresholds, the wireless
device will generate a report to indicate changes to the
PoS (MIH_linkparameters_report_IND). When deteri-
oration in connection quality continues to reach unac-
ceptable levels, the mobile unit sends a message to the
WiMAX PoS indicates the need for a handover
(MIH_link_going_down_IND). This message includes
details about the time period at which the link will go
down and the reason of this links weakness with a cer-
tain precision. Now the WiMAX PoS is aware of the
need of performing the handover and this is when the
handover preparation stage starts.
C. At this stage, a query to the MIIS server might be sent
requesting information regarding access networks in vi-
cinity of the mobile device. The MIIS server database
includes information about different access networks
present around the wireless device. This information in-
cludes: network status, availability, and signal strength.

MN
WiMAX
PoS
GPRS
PoS
MIIS
server
MIH_configure_link_REQ
MIH_configure_link_CNF
MIH_linkparameters_report_IND
MIH_link_going_down_IND
MIH-Get-Information.REQ
Recommended network to which the handover is to be performed towards
MIH-N2N-Query-Resources.REQ
MIH-N2N-Query-Resources.RSP
Measurements
request
Measurements
respond
MIH_Net_HO_commit.REQ
MIH_Net_HO_Commit.RSP
MIH_N2N_HO_complete.REQ
MIH_N2N_HO_complete.RSP
(
1
)

I
n
i
t
i
a
t
i
o
n
(
2
)

P
r
e
p
a
r
a
t
i
o
n
(
3
)

e
x
e
c
u
t
i
o
n
Figure 2. User zoning handover procedure flow.
82


D. The MIIS server will send a message to the WiMAX PoS
indicating forcing the device to connect to a certain pre-
set network instead of suggesting multiple networks to
choose from. This step aims to optimize service in terms
of network availability, cost, seamless mobility, and ur-
gent traffic management. In addition, this will reduce the
time consumed in the handover process. The wireless
unit will not be required to perform additional scanning
for networks in the surrounding. There will be no need of
resource availability check on candidate networks. In this
technique, the mobile unit will skip all regular reporting
actions and just report required measurements regarding
the target network (GPRS in our example). Then, imme-
diately starts establishing a connection with the new ra-
dio network.
E. The WiMAX PoS sends an information request (MIH-
Get-Information.REQ) message. MIIS sever receives the
request and then sends back a special message based on
PoA (Point-of-Attachment) location where user zoning is
applied, containing the target network along with its cha-
racteristic. The mobile unit now will only scan for this
specific network rather than scanning for a list of availa-
ble networks. MIIS will choose this network based on
multiple aspects such as resources availability, QoS, sig-
nal strength within the zone, capability of maintain active
sessions, and the types of services offerd.
F. At this point, the WiMAX PoS will send an order to the
mobile unit to start scanning for the concerned PoA rec-
ommended by the MIIS server. A signal strength mea-
surement message has to be sent back to the WiMAX
PoS.
G. The PoS sends a confirmation to the MIIS server stating
the readiness of the wireless device to execute handover.
H. The WiMAX PoS communicates with GPRS PoS and
send a (MIH_N2N_HO_Query_Resourse) request and
Reply. The GPRS PoS has to reserve required resources.
Resources have to be guaranteed in both core and target
networks. This is when the execution stage begins, and
the WiMAX PoS orders the wireless device to start the
handover by indicating the actions over the old and new
link (MIH_Net_HO_commit.REQ). Old link resources
are not needed anymore so it can be released and an IP
connection is now established over the GPRS network
which has to be reported back to the WiMAX PoS
(MIH_Net_HO_Commit.RSP) then to the GPRS PoS
(MIH_N2N_HO_complete.REQ).
I. Now, the WiMAX has to respond
(MIH_N2N_HO_complete.RSP). Then, WiMAX releas-
es resources if not already done and data starts flowing
through GPRS Network.





V. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK

In this paper, we proposed a user zoning handover tech-
nique based on the IEEE802.21 protocol. The new technique
aims to reduce overhead and time consumed while perform-
ing handover, as well as allowing the MIIS server to optim-
ize network utilization by balancing loads over the available
networks.
The proposed approach connects users to a preset net-
work upon entering a zone. The process will be guided by
the MIIS server. In order to apply user zoning concept, in-
formation about target zones has to be provided by the MIIS
server under which the zone is located.
As a future work, further analysis and validation will be
conducted to evaluate and confirm the performance of the
proposed technique.
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