1

(1) Brief Survey of Mobility Models

for Ad Hoc Networks and WLANs

(2) A Mobility Model for Both Long-
term Mobility Characteristics and
Timed Location Prediction in WLANs
Presented by Jong-Kwon Lee
November 11, 2005
2
Random Walk Model
Originally proposed to emulate the unpredictable
movement of particles in physics (referred to as
Brownian Motion)
Each node moves from its current location to a
new location by randomly choosing a direction
and speed in which to travel.
For every interval t, randomly choose
New Speed [v
min
, v
max
]
New Direction (0, 2t]
No pause time
3
Random Waypoint Model
Widely used in mobile ad hoc network research
Behavior of each node
selects a random point in the simulation area as its destination,
and a speed V from an input range [v
min
, v
max
].
Moves to its destination at its chosen speed.
When the node reaches its destination, it rests for some pause
time.
After this pause time, it selects
a new destination and speed,
and repeats the process.
4
Reference Point Group
Mobility Model
A mobility model with spatial dependency
Represents the random motion of a group of mobile
nodes as well as the random motion of each individual
node within the group
Group leader
Movement of a group leader at
time t :
Group members
Mobility is assigned with a
reference point that follows the
group movement:

t
group
V

t
i
t
group
t
i
RM V V + =

5
Obstacle Mobility Model
(MobiCom03)
Nodes move around pre-defined (rectangle) obstacles
(e.g. buildings)
Voronoi diagram is used to determine the path of mobile
nodes.
Planar graph whose edges are line segments that are equidistant
from two obstacle corners
A variation of Random Waypoint model
The environment limits the trajectories of
mobile nodes to the Voronoi graph.
Obtain the shortest path between a nodes
current location and its destination.
6
Empirical Model
Weighted Waypoint (WWP) model
Based on surveys from sampled respondents on USC campus
during 4 weeks
Destinations are not randomly picked with the same weight
across the simulation area.
The parameters of a mobility model (e.g. pause time) are
location-dependent and time-dependent.
Topology of virtual-campus
5-state Markov model for mobile node
transition between categories
7
WLAN Mobility Model
(Infocom05)
Uses real-life mobility characteristics extracted
from WLAN traces to generate mobility scenarios.
load environment description
for every simulated node do
time := 0
while time < t_sim do
call P
S
{select next destination}
call P
T
{generate timing}
move to next destination
time := time+current_session
end while
end for
Algorithm used by the WLAN mobility
model to generate node trajectories
8
WLAN Mobility Model
Consists of spatial process P
S
and temporal process P
T

Spatial process selects next destination
The next cell can be either the same cell, one of the neighboring
cells, or a non-neighboring cell
=> (p
same
, p
neigh
, p
non_neigh
) parameter sets

Temporal process generates timing
Duration of Inactive State uniform random distribution
Duration of Active State
Analyze persistence (= residence time at a given location) from
WLAN traces approximated by a power-law function c1/x
1.22
Generated using a general Pareto distribution
-> approximation for c1/x
1.22

9
Model T (MobiCom05)
Model only for spatial registration patterns
Develop a model as a set of equations that
characterize the salient features of the (training)
data set
No. and distribution of clusters
No. of popular APs in a cluster size C
Intra-cluster transition probability
Intra-cluster trace length
Inter-cluster transition probability
Inter-cluster trace length
10
Motivation
Recent studies on characterization of user
mobility and network usage in WLANs
Few studies on how the user mobility is
correlated in time (daily, weekly, monthly time
scales).
Existing prediction models for user
locations in WLANs
Predict only the next location w/o time
information
11
Semi-Markov Mobility Model
Continuous-time Markov chain (CTMC)
can characterize users state transitions as well as the
sojourn times spent in each state.
However, the sojourn time characteristics of
users in campus-like WLAN do not follow an
exponential distribution.
Semi-Markov Processes
Generalization of Markov processes with arbitrary
distributed sojourn times.
Can be used for obtaining both steady-state
distribution and transient distribution
characterize long-term usage of network resource +
timed location prediction with one model!

12
Semi-Markov Mobility Model
Discrete state space S={1, , m}
Markov renewal process {(X
n
, T
n
): n>0}
(Time homogeneous) semi-Markov process
Transition prob. from i to j
Sojourn time distribution in
state i when the next state is j
Transition prob. matrix of the embedded Markov chain
Sojourn time distribution in
state i regardless of the next state
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Steady-state User Distribution
over APs
Association trace Build transition probability
matrix P & mean residence time vector
From P and ,





=> Long-term average user distribution over APs
Steady-state transition probability
Mean residence time vector
Steady-state distribution at any time
instant
D
D
14
Steady-state User Distribution
over APs
t
~
D
t
noOFF
t
During 11/1/2003
~2/29/2004
786 active users
15
Similarity of Mobility Patterns
between Different Periods
Use of similarity measures to check the
correlation of the mobility behavior
Cosine distance (= correlation coefficient)
: a pattern similarity measure




* 0s sim(p,q) s 1
sim(p,q) = 1 Identical Pattern

q p
q p
q p
q p
q p sim
m
i
i
m
i
i
m
i
i i

-
=
|
.
|

\
|
|
.
|

\
|
=


= =
=
1
2
1
2
1
) , (
16
Monthly Correlation
1 month = 4 weeks
8 months (11/2/2003 ~ 6/12/2004)











More similar between consecutive periods
3/21/2004~4/17/2004
17
Weekly Correlation
14 weeks (2/1/2004~5/8/2004)
3/21/2004~4/17/2004
18
Daily Correlation
For each day of week (Sunday, Monday, , Saturday)
8 weeks (11/2/2003~12/27/2003)
19
Different User Groups

20
Ping-Pong Phenomena
Ping-pong transition: for APs i, j, and k,
(ijij) or (ijki)

For each user,
Ping-pong ratio = [# of ping-pong transitions] / [# of all transitions]
For 786 users,
Average ping-pong ratio = 0.40
Median = 0.38


Ping-pong happens quite often
and should not be ignored !

=> The transition probability and residence time characteristics at each AP
with the original association patterns can distort the actual mobility
behavior.
C
D
F

(
c
u
m
u
l
a
t
i
v
e

f
r
a
c
t
i
o
n

o
f

u
s
e
r
s
)

Ping-pong ratio
21
Mobility Change Due to Ping-
Pong Phenomena
Elimination of ping-pong transitions from the
original association history of each user
Identify a sequence of ping-pong transitions
Cluster the states (i.e. APs) in the sequence of the
ping-pong transitions into an Aggregate State (AS)
Replace the sequence of the ping-pong transitions
with just one transition to the dominant AP with which
the user has mostly associated among the APs in the
same AS
ex) a->1->4->1->4->b
=> a->1->b if 1 is dominant in AS={1,4}
a->4->b if 4 is dominant in AS={1,4}
22
Mobility from Corrected Data
(after Elimination of Ping-Pong)
t
~
D
t
noOFF
t
23
Mobility from Original Data
t
~
D
t
noOFF
t
24
Change in Residence Time
25
Timed Prediction of User
Location
Transient behavior of semi-Markov model
Numerical solution: discretize by t = kh
26
Timed Prediction of User
Location
Predict users location at every k time step
s k
i
j
nk (n-1)k (n+1)k
27
Timed Prediction of User
Location: Results
h = 600, K = 12, T
p
= 1800
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Application: Mobility-aware
Load Balancing in WLAN
Lets take advantage of ping-pong phenomena.
Rationale: APs in the same AS has served in turn the user with
the acceptably high SNR.
Basic idea of load balancing over APs
Assume the load at each AP is the number of users at the AP.
(We may later extend this to the case of traffic amount at each
AP.)
Move users at overloaded APs to a lightly loaded AP in the same
AS.
Balance Index:

where m: # of APs, L
i
: load at AP i
| = 1 : All L
i
s have the same value.
| 1/n : Heavily unbalance.

( ) ( )

=
2
2
i i
L m L |
29
Overview of the Mobility-aware
Load Balancing Algorithm
Incorporating timed location prediction
Can predict future load distribution.
Can avoid load unbalance in advance.
Use a 1xm bit vector AC to control the association of users to APs
(m: # of APs)
Initially, AC(i) = 1 for all AP i
If the load at AP i is predicted to be greater than a threshold L, AC(i)
0.
AC(i) is reset to 1 if the load at AP i is under L (either expectedly or
actually).
When a user moves to a new location,
First checks the AC bit corresponding to the AP having highest signal
strength.
If it is 0 (i.e. it is overloaded), the user tries to associate to alternative
APs in the same AS as that AP.
If the overloaded AP belongs to no AS, or there are no alternative APs
having sufficient signal strength, the user is allowed to associate to the
overloaded AP.

30
Simulation Results
Total users = 786, OFF users = 509, Active users = 277
Original distribution : Balance Index = 0.180823 with max load = 9 at AP 361
After load balancing : Balance Index = 0.327917 with max load = 3 at AP 373
31
Simulation Results: More
Active Users
Total users = 786, OFF users = 201, Active users = 585 (OFF users artificially reduced)
Original distribution : Balance Index = 0.284616 with max load = 12 at AP 361
After load balancing : Balance Index = 0.506377 with max load = 4 at AP 275