Chapter 6

Wireless and
Mobile Networks

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Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-1

Ch. 6: Wireless and Mobile Networks
Background:
 # wireless (mobile) phone subscribers now exceeds #
wired phone subscribers (5-to-1)!
 # wireless Internet-connected devices equals #
wireline Internet-connected devices
 laptops, Internet-enabled phones promise anytime untethered
Internet access
 two important (but different) challenges
 wireless: communication over wireless link
 mobility: handling the mobile user who changes point of
attachment to network

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-2

Chapter 6 outline
6.1 Introduction Mobility
Wireless 6.5 Principles: addressing and
routing to mobile users
6.2 Wireless links,
characteristics 6.6 Mobile IP
 CDMA 6.7 Handling mobility in
6.3 IEEE 802.11 wireless cellular networks
LANs (“Wi-Fi”) 6.8 Mobility and higher-layer
6.4 Cellular Internet Access protocols
 architecture
 standards (e.g., GSM) 6.9 Summary

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-3

Elements of a wireless network

network
infrastructure

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-4

Elements of a wireless network
wireless hosts
 laptop, smartphone
 run applications
 may be stationary (non-
mobile) or mobile
network
infrastructure  wireless does not always
mean mobility

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-5

Elements of a wireless network
base station
 typically connected to
wired network
 relay - responsible for
sending packets between
network
wired network and
infrastructure
wireless host(s) in its
“area”
 e.g., cell towers,
802.11 access points

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-6

Elements of a wireless network
wireless link
 typically used to connect
mobile(s) to base station
 also used as backbone
link
network  multiple access protocol
infrastructure coordinates link access
 various data rates,
transmission distance

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-7

Characteristics of selected wireless links

200 802.11n

54 802.11a,g 802.11a,g point-to-point

Data rate (Mbps)

5-11 802.11b 4G: LTWE WIMAX

4 3G: UMTS/WCDMA-HSPDA, CDMA2000-1xEVDO

1 802.15

.384 2.5G: UMTS/WCDMA, CDMA2000

.056 2G: IS-95, CDMA, GSM

Indoor Outdoor Mid-range Long-range

10-30m 50-200m outdoor outdoor
200m – 4 Km 5Km – 20 Km

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-8

Elements of a wireless network
infrastructure mode
 base station connects
mobiles into wired
network
 handoff: mobile changes
network
base station providing
infrastructure
connection into wired
network

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-9

Elements of a wireless network
ad hoc mode
 no base stations
 nodes can only
transmit to other
nodes within link
coverage
 nodes organize
themselves into a
network: route
among themselves

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-10

Wireless network taxonomy
single hop multiple hops
host connects to host may have to
infrastructure base station (WiFi, relay through several
WiMAX, cellular) wireless nodes to
(e.g., APs)
which connects to connect to larger
larger Internet Internet: mesh net

no base station, no
connection to larger
no no base station, no
Internet. May have to
infrastructure connection to larger
relay to reach other
Internet (Bluetooth,
a given wireless node
ad hoc nets)
MANET,VANET

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-11

Chapter 6 outline
6.1 Introduction Mobility
Wireless 6.5 Principles: addressing and
routing to mobile users
6.2 Wireless links,
characteristics 6.6 Mobile IP
 CDMA 6.7 Handling mobility in
6.3 IEEE 802.11 wireless cellular networks
LANs (“Wi-Fi”) 6.8 Mobility and higher-layer
6.4 Cellular Internet Access protocols
 architecture
 standards (e.g., GSM) 6.9 Summary

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-12

Wireless Link Characteristics (1)
important differences from wired link ….

 decreased signal strength: radio signal attenuates as it

propagates through matter (path loss)
 interference from other sources: standardized wireless
network frequencies (e.g., 2.4 GHz) shared by other
devices (e.g., phone); devices (motors) interfere as
well
 multipath propagation: radio signal reflects off objects
ground, arriving ad destination at slightly different
times

…. make communication across (even a point to point)

wireless link much more “difficult”
Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-13
Wireless Link Characteristics (2)
 SNR: signal-to-noise ratio 10-1

 larger SNR – easier to 10-2

extract signal from noise (a 10-3

“good thing”)

BER
10-4
 SNR versus BER tradeoffs
10-5
 given physical layer: increase
power -> increase SNR- 10-6
>decrease BER
10-7
 given SNR: choose physical layer 10 20 30 40
that meets BER requirement, SNR(dB)

giving highest thruput

QAM256 (8 Mbps)
• SNR may change with
QAM16 (4 Mbps)
mobility: dynamically adapt
physical layer (modulation BPSK (1 Mbps)
technique, rate)
Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-14
Wireless network characteristics
Multiple wireless senders and receivers create additional
problems (beyond multiple access):

A B C
C

A’s signal C’s signal

B strength strength
A

Hidden terminal problem

space

 B, A hear each other Signal attenuation:

 B, C hear each other  B, A hear each other
 A, C can not hear each other  B, C hear each other
means A, C unaware of their  A, C can not hear each other
interference at B interfering at B
Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-15
Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)
 unique “code” assigned to each user; i.e., code set
partitioning
 all users share same frequency, but each user has own
“chipping” sequence (i.e., code) to encode data
 allows multiple users to “coexist” and transmit
simultaneously with minimal interference (if codes are
“orthogonal”)
 encoded signal = (original data) X (chipping
sequence)
 decoding: inner-product of encoded signal and
chipping sequence

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-16

Chapter 6 outline
6.1 Introduction Mobility
Wireless 6.5 Principles: addressing and
routing to mobile users
6.2 Wireless links,
characteristics 6.6 Mobile IP
 CDMA 6.7 Handling mobility in
6.3 IEEE 802.11 wireless cellular networks
LANs (“Wi-Fi”) 6.8 Mobility and higher-layer
6.4 Cellular Internet Access protocols
 architecture
 standards (e.g., GSM) 6.9 Summary

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-17

 IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN
802.11b 802.11a
 5-6 GHz range
 2.4-5 GHz unlicensed spectrum
 up to 54 Mbps
 up to 11 Mbps
802.11g
 direct sequence spread spectrum  2.4-5 GHz range
(DSSS) in physical layer  up to 54 Mbps
 all hosts use same chipping 802.11n: multiple antennae
code  2.4-5 GHz range
 up to 200 Mbps

 all use CSMA/CA for multiple access

 all have base-station and ad-hoc network versions
Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-18
802.11 LAN architecture
 wireless host
communicates with base
Internet
station
 base station = access point
(AP)

hub, switch  Basic Service Set (BSS) (aka

or router “cell”) in infrastructure
mode contains:
 wireless hosts
BSS 1  access point (AP): base
station
 ad hoc mode: hosts only

BSS 2
Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-19
802.11: Channels, association
 802.11b: 2.4GHz-2.485GHz spectrum divided into 11
channels at different frequencies
 AP admin chooses frequency for AP
 interference possible: channel can be same as that
chosen by neighboring AP!
 host: must associate with an AP
 scans channels, listening for beacon frames containing
AP’s name (SSID) and MAC address
 selects AP to associate with
 may perform authentication [Chapter 8]
 will typically run DHCP to get IP address in AP’s
subnet
Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-20
 802.11: passive/active scanning
BBS 1 BBS 2 BBS 1 BBS 2

1
1 1 2 2 AP 2
AP 1 AP 2 AP 1
2 3
3 4

H1 H1

passive scanning: active scanning:

(1) beacon frames sent from APs (1) Probe Request frame broadcast
(2) association Request frame sent: H1 to from H1
selected AP (2) Probe Response frames sent
(3) association Response frame sent from from APs
selected AP to H1 (3) Association Request frame sent:
H1 to selected AP
(4) Association Response frame sent
from selected AP to H1
Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-21
IEEE 802.11: multiple access
 avoid collisions: 2+ nodes transmitting at same time
 802.11: CSMA - sense before transmitting
 don’t collide with ongoing transmission by other node
 802.11: no collision detection!
 difficult to receive (sense collisions) when transmitting due to weak
received signals (fading)
 can’t sense all collisions in any case: hidden terminal, fading
 goal: avoid collisions: CSMA/C(ollision)A(voidance)

A B C
C

A’s signal C’s signal

B strength
A strength

space

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-22

IEEE 802.11 MAC Protocol: CSMA/CA
802.11 sender
1 if sense channel idle for DIFS ((Distributed
sender receiver
Inter-Frame Space)) then
transmit entire frame (no CD) DIFS
2 if sense channel busy then
start random backoff time
data
timer counts down while channel idle
transmit when timer expires
if no ACK, increase random backoff interval, SIFS
repeat 2
ACK
802.11 receiver
- if frame received OK
return ACK after SIFS (Short Interframe
Space) (ACK needed due to hidden terminal
Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-23
problem)
Avoiding collisions (more)
idea: allow sender to “reserve” channel rather than random
access of data frames: avoid collisions of long data frames
 sender first transmits small request-to-send (RTS) packets
to BS using CSMA
 RTSs may still collide with each other (but they’re short)
 BS broadcasts clear-to-send CTS in response to RTS
 CTS heard by all nodes
 sender transmits data frame
 other stations defer transmissions

avoid data frame collisions completely

using small reservation packets!
Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-24
 Collision Avoidance: RTS-CTS exchange
A B
AP

reservation collision

DATA (A)
defer

time

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-25

 802.11 frame: addressing

2 2 6 6 6 2 6 0 - 2312 4
frame address address address seq address
duration payload CRC
control 1 2 3 control 4

Address 4: used only in

Address 1: MAC address ad hoc mode
of wireless host or AP Address 3: MAC address
to receive this frame of router interface to
which AP is attached
Address 2: MAC address
of wireless host or AP
transmitting this frame

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-26

802.11 frame: addressing

Internet
H1 R1 router

R1 MAC addr H1 MAC addr

dest. address source address

802.3 frame

AP MAC addr H1 MAC addr R1 MAC addr

address 1 address 2 address 3

802.11 frame
Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-27
802.11 frame: more
frame seq #
duration of reserved
(for RDT)
transmission time (RTS/CTS)

2 2 6 6 6 2 6 0 - 2312 4
frame address address address seq address
duration payload CRC
control 1 2 3 control 4

2 2 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Protocol To From More Power More
Type Subtype Retry WEP Rsvd
version AP AP frag mgt data

frame type
(RTS, CTS, ACK, data)

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-28

802.11: mobility within same subnet
 H1 remains in same
IP subnet: IP address
can remain same
 switch: which AP is
associated with H1?
 self-learning (Ch. 5):
switch will see frame
from H1 and
“remember” which
switch port can be H1 BBS 2
used to reach H1 BBS 1

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-29

802.11: advanced capabilities
Rate adaptation 10-1

10-2
 base station, mobile 10-3
dynamically change

BER
10-4
transmission rate 10-5

(physical layer modulation 10-6

technique) as mobile 10-7

10 20 30 40
moves, SNR varies SNR(dB)

1. SNR decreases, BER

increase as node moves
QAM256 (8 Mbps) away from base station
QAM16 (4 Mbps)
BPSK (1 Mbps) 2. When BER becomes too
operating point
high, switch to lower
transmission rate but with
lower BER
Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-30
802.11: advanced capabilities
power management
 node-to-AP: “I am going to sleep until next
beacon frame”
 AP knows not to transmit frames to this node
 node wakes up before next beacon frame
 beacon frame: contains list of mobiles with AP-
to-mobile frames waiting to be sent
 node will stay awake if AP-to-mobile frames to be
sent; otherwise sleep again until next beacon frame

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-31

802.15: personal area network
 less than 10 m diameter
 replacement for cables (mouse,
keyboard, headphones) S
P

 ad hoc: no infrastructure P
radius of
M
 master/slaves: coverage

 slaves request permission to send S P

S
(to master) P
 master grants requests
 802.15: evolved from Bluetooth
specification M Master device
 2.4-2.5 GHz radio band S Slave device
 up to 721 kbps
P Parked device (inactive)

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-32

Chapter 6 outline
6.1 Introduction Mobility
Wireless 6.5 Principles: addressing and
routing to mobile users
6.2 Wireless links,
characteristics 6.6 Mobile IP
 CDMA 6.7 Handling mobility in
6.3 IEEE 802.11 wireless cellular networks
LANs (“Wi-Fi”) 6.8 Mobility and higher-layer
6.4 Cellular Internet access protocols
 architecture
 standards (e.g., GSM) 6.9 Summary

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-33

Components of cellular network architecture
MSC
 connects cells to wired tel. net.
 manages call setup (more later!)
 handles mobility (more later!)
cell
 covers geographical
region
 base station (BS)
Mobile
Switching
analogous to 802.11 AP Center
Public telephone
 mobile users attach to
network
network through BS
 air-interface: physical
Mobile
and link layer protocol Switching
between mobile and BS Center

wired network

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-34

Cellular networks: the first hop
Two techniques for sharing
mobile-to-BS radio spectrum
 combined FDMA/TDMA:
divide spectrum in frequency
channels, divide each channel time slots
into time slots
 CDMA: code division multiple
access frequency
bands

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-35

2G (voice) network architecture
Base station system (BSS)
MSC
BTS BSC G Public
telephone
network
Gateway
MSC

Legend

Base transceiver station (BTS)

Base station controller (BSC)

Mobile Switching Center (MSC)

Mobile subscribers

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-36

3G (voice+data) network architecture
MSC
G Public
telephone
network
radio
network Gateway
controller MSC

G Public
SGSN
Key insight: new cellular data Internet

network operates in parallel GGSN

(except at edge) with existing
cellular voice network Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN)
 voice network unchanged in core
 data network operates in parallel Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN)

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-37

3G (voice+data) network architecture
MSC
G Public
telephone
network
radio
network Gateway
controller MSC

G Public
SGSN Internet

GGSN
radio interface
(WCDMA, HSPA)
radio access network core network public
Universal Terrestrial Radio General Packet Radio Service Internet
Access Network (UTRAN) (GPRS) Core Network

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-38

Chapter 6 outline
6.1 Introduction Mobility
Wireless 6.5 Principles: addressing and
routing to mobile users
6.2 Wireless links,
characteristics 6.6 Mobile IP
 CDMA 6.7 Handling mobility in
6.3 IEEE 802.11 wireless cellular networks
LANs (“Wi-Fi”) 6.8 Mobility and higher-layer
6.4 Cellular Internet Access protocols
 architecture
 standards (e.g., GSM) 6.9 Summary

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-39

What is mobility?
 spectrum of mobility, from the network perspective:

no mobility high mobility

mobile wireless user, mobile user, mobile user, passing

using same access connecting/ through multiple
point disconnecting from access point while
network using maintaining ongoing
DHCP. connections (like cell
phone)

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-40

 Mobility: vocabulary
home network: permanent home agent: entity that will
“home” of mobile perform mobility functions on
(e.g., 128.119.40/24)
behalf of mobile, when mobile is
remote

wide area
network
permanent address:
address in home
network, can always be
used to reach mobile
e.g., 128.119.40.186

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-41

Mobility: more vocabulary
permanent address: remains visited network: network in
constant (e.g., 128.119.40.186) which mobile currently
resides (e.g., 79.129.13/24)
care-of-address: address
in visited network.
(e.g., 79,129.13.2)

wide area
network

foreign agent: entity in

visited network that
performs mobility
correspondent: wants functions on behalf of
to communicate with mobile.
mobile
Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-42
How do you contact a mobile friend:
Consider friend frequently changing I wonder where
addresses, how do you find her? Alice moved to?
 search all phone books?
 call her parents?
 expect her to let you
know where he/she is?

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-43

Mobility: approaches
 let routing handle it: routers advertise permanent address of
mobile-nodes-in-residence via usual routing table exchange.
 routing tables indicate where each mobile located
 no changes to end-systems
 let end-systems handle it:
 indirect routing: communication from correspondent to
mobile goes through home agent, then forwarded to
remote
 direct routing: correspondent gets foreign address of
mobile, sends directly to mobile

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-44

Mobility: approaches
 let routing handle it: routers advertise permanent address of
mobile-nodes-in-residence not via usual routing table exchange.
scalable
 routing tables indicate where each mobile located
to millions of
 no changes to end-systems
mobiles
 let end-systems handle it:
 indirect routing: communication from correspondent to
mobile goes through home agent, then forwarded to
remote
 direct routing: correspondent gets foreign address of
mobile, sends directly to mobile

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-45

Mobility: registration
visited network
home network

1
2
wide area
network

mobile contacts
foreign agent contacts home foreign agent on
agent home: “this mobile is entering visited
resident in my network” network

end result:
 foreign agent knows about mobile
 home agent knows location of mobile
Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-46
Mobility via indirect routing
foreign agent
receives packets,
home agent intercepts forwards to mobile
packets, forwards to visited
foreign agent network
home
network
3
wide area
network
2
1
correspondent 4
addresses packets
mobile replies
using home address of
directly to
mobile
correspondent

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-47

Indirect Routing: comments
 mobile uses two addresses:
 permanent address: used by correspondent (hence
mobile location is transparent to correspondent)
 care-of-address: used by home agent to forward
datagrams to mobile
 foreign agent functions may be done by mobile itself
 triangle routing: correspondent-home-network-
mobile
 inefficient when
correspondent, mobile
are in same network

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-48

Indirect routing: moving between networks
 suppose mobile user moves to another network
 registers with new foreign agent
 new foreign agent registers with home agent
 home agent update care-of-address for mobile
 packets continue to be forwarded to mobile (but
with new care-of-address)
 mobility, changing foreign networks transparent: on
going connections can be maintained!

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-49

Mobility via direct routing

foreign agent
receives packets,
correspondent forwards forwards to mobile
to foreign agent visited
network
home
network
3
1 2
4
mobile replies
correspondent
directly to
requests, receives
correspondent
foreign address of
mobile

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-50

Mobility via direct routing: comments
 overcome triangle routing problem
 non-transparent to correspondent: correspondent
must get care-of-address from home agent
 what if mobile changes visited network?

3
1 2
4

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-51

Accommodating mobility with direct routing
 anchor foreign agent: FA in first visited network
 data always routed first to anchor FA
 when mobile moves: new FA arranges to have
data forwarded from old FA (chaining)
foreign net visited
at session start
anchor
foreign
agent
wide area 2
network
1 4
3
5
new
correspondent foreign
new foreign
agent network
correspondent agent

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-52

Chapter 6 outline
6.1 Introduction Mobility
Wireless 6.5 Principles: addressing and
routing to mobile users
6.2 Wireless links,
characteristics 6.6 Mobile IP
 CDMA 6.7 Handling mobility in
6.3 IEEE 802.11 wireless cellular networks
LANs (“Wi-Fi”) 6.8 Mobility and higher-layer
6.4 Cellular Internet Access protocols
 architecture
 standards (e.g., GSM) 6.9 Summary

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-53

Mobile IP
 RFC 3344
 has many features we’ve seen:
 home agents, foreign agents, foreign-agent registration,
care-of-addresses, encapsulation (packet-within-a-
packet)
 three components to standard:
 indirect routing of datagrams
 agent discovery
 registration with home agent

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-54

 Mobile IP: indirect routing
foreign-agent-to-mobile packet
packet sent by home agent to foreign dest: 128.119.40.186
agent: a packet within a packet

dest: 79.129.13.2 dest: 128.119.40.186

Permanent address:
128.119.40.186

Care-of address:
79.129.13.2
dest: 128.119.40.186
packet sent by
correspondent

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-55

 Mobile IP: agent discovery
 agent advertisement: foreign/home agents advertise
service by broadcasting ICMP messages (typefield = 9)
0 8 16 24

type = 9 code = 0 checksum

=9 =9
H,F bits: home and/or standard
foreign agent router address ICMP fields

R bit: registration
required type = 16 length sequence #
RBHFMGV
registration lifetime reserved
bits mobility agent
advertisement
0 or more care-of- extension

addresses
Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-56
Mobile IP: registration example
visited network: 79.129.13/24
home agent foreign agent
HA: 128.119.40.7 COA: 79.129.13.2
mobile agent
MA: 128.119.40.186
ICMP agent adv.
COA:
79.129.13.2
….
registration req.
registration req.
COA: 79.129.13.2
COA: 79.129.13.2 HA: 128.119.40.7
HA: 128.119.40.7 MA: 128.119.40.186
MA: 128.119.40.186 Lifetime: 9999
Lifetime: 9999 identification:714
identification: 714 ….
encapsulation format
….

registration reply
HA: 128.119.40.7 registration reply
MA: 128.119.40.186 HA: 128.119.40.7
Lifetime: 4999 MA: 128.119.40.186
Identification: 714 Lifetime: 4999
encapsulation format Identification: 714
…. ….
time
Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-57
Components of cellular network architecture

recall: correspondent
wired public
telephone
network

MSC MSC

MSC
MSC
MSC

different cellular networks,

operated by different providers

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-58

Handling mobility in cellular networks
 home network: network of cellular provider you
subscribe to (e.g., Sprint PCS, Verizon)
 home location register (HLR): database in home network
containing permanent cell phone #, profile information
(services, preferences, billing), information about
current location (could be in another network)
 visited network: network in which mobile currently
resides
 visitor location register (VLR): database with entry for
each user currently in network
 could be home network

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-59

GSM: indirect routing to mobile
home
HLR
network correspondent
2
home
Mobile
home MSC consults HLR, Switching
gets roaming number of Center
mobile in visited network
1 call routed
to home network
3 Public
VLR switched
Mobile
telephone
Switching
network
Center
4
home MSC sets up 2nd leg of call
to MSC in visited network
mobile
user MSC in visited network completes
visited call through base station to mobile
network
Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-60
GSM: handoff with common MSC
 handoff goal: route call via
new base station (without
interruption)
VLR Mobile
Switching  reasons for handoff:
Center  stronger signal to/from new BSS
(continuing connectivity, less
old new battery drain)
routing routing
old BSS
 load balance: free up channel in
new BSS current BSS
 GSM doesnt mandate why to
perform handoff (policy), only
how (mechanism)
 handoff initiated by old BSS

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-61

 GSM: handoff with common MSC
1. old BSS informs MSC of impending
handoff, provides list of 1+ new BSSs
2. MSC sets up path (allocates resources)
to new BSS
VLR Mobile 3. new BSS allocates radio channel for
Switching
Center 2 use by mobile
4 4. new BSS signals MSC, old BSS: ready
1
7
8 5. old BSS tells mobile: perform handoff to
3
old BSS 5 6
new BSS
new BSS
6. mobile, new BSS signal to activate new
channel
7. mobile signals via new BSS to MSC:
handoff complete. MSC reroutes call
8 MSC-old-BSS resources released

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-62

GSM: handoff between MSCs
 anchor MSC: first MSC
visited during call
home network

Home
correspondent  call remains routed
MSC through anchor MSC
anchor MSC
 new MSCs add on to end of
PSTN
MSC MSC chain as mobile moves
MSC to new MSC
MSC
 optional path minimization
step to shorten multi-MSC
chain
(a) before handoff

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-63

GSM: handoff between MSCs
 anchor MSC: first MSC
visited during call
home network

Home
correspondent  call remains routed
MSC through anchor MSC
anchor MSC
 new MSCs add on to end of
PSTN
MSC MSC chain as mobile moves
MSC to new MSC
MSC
 optional path minimization
step to shorten multi-MSC
chain
(b) after handoff

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-64

Mobility: GSM versus Mobile IP
GSM element Comment on GSM element Mobile IP element
Home system Network to which mobile user’s permanent Home
phone number belongs network
Gateway Mobile Home MSC: point of contact to obtain routable Home agent
Switching Center, or address of mobile user. HLR: database in
“home MSC”. Home home system containing permanent phone
Location Register number, profile information, current location of
(HLR) mobile user, subscription information
Visited System Network other than home system where Visited
mobile user is currently residing network
Visited Mobile Visited MSC: responsible for setting up calls Foreign agent
services Switching to/from mobile nodes in cells associated with
Center. MSC. VLR: temporary database entry in
Visitor Location visited system, containing subscription
Record (VLR) information for each visiting mobile user
Mobile Station Routable address for telephone call segment Care-of-
Roaming Number between home MSC and visited MSC, visible address
(MSRN), or “roaming to neither the mobile nor the correspondent.
number”
Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-65
Wireless, mobility: impact on higher layer protocols

 logically, impact should be minimal …

 best effort service model remains unchanged
 TCP and UDP can (and do) run over wireless, mobile
 … but performance-wise:
 packet loss/delay due to bit-errors (discarded packets,
delays for link-layer retransmissions), and handoff
 TCP interprets loss as congestion, will decrease congestion
window un-necessarily
 delay impairments for real-time traffic
 limited bandwidth of wireless links

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-66

Chapter 6 summary
Wireless Mobility
 wireless links:  principles: addressing,
 capacity, distance routing to mobile users
 channel impairments  home, visited networks
 CDMA  direct, indirect routing
 IEEE 802.11 (“Wi-Fi”)  care-of-addresses
 CSMA/CA reflects wireless  case studies
channel characteristics  mobile IP
 cellular access  mobility in GSM
 architecture  impact on higher-layer
 standards (e.g., GSM, 3G, protocols
4G LTE)

Wireless, Mobile Networks 6-67