THE MOBILE IP HANDOFF BETWEEN HYBRID NETWORKS

YE Min-hua, LIU Yu, ZHANG Hui-min School of Information Engineering Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing 100876, China, mhye@bupt.edu.cn

Abstract - In the future, the mobile data networks must consist of several tiers, which overlap each other. In this paper, we introduce two main technologies of them: GPRS network and IEEE 802.11 WLAN, which will be widely deployed. We propose the schemes to support mobility in these two networks. We also analyze the Mobile IP handoff between hybrid networks and propose our handoff scheme, which reduces the handoff delay, packet loss and prevents from the ping-pong effect by utilizing the dwell timer and multi-tunnel technology. Keywords - Mobile IP; Handoff; Hybrid Network; GPRS; IEEE 802.11; I. INTRODUCTION Future mobile data networks will consist of several overlapping tiers: satellite, macro, micro and pico-cellular segments [1]. Each network has its own characteristics such as geographic coverage and data rate supporting. For example, pico cells with data rate in excess of 25Mbit/s will cover a building; micro cells with 2Mbit/s data rate, typically cover the dense urban areas; macro cells with several hundred kbit/s data rate cover wide area; satellite network with data rate 144kbit/s or more covers the continents. The main important character of the tiered data networks is that several networks coverage can be overlapped. The same user can be under the coverage of several kinds of networks at the same time. For example, a mobile terminal in a building can access the wireless LAN in the building and simultaneously it is under the coverage of GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) network and the satellites. To achieve flexibility in communication, it can be anticipated that future terminal will have different radio interfaces for different wireless networks. We call this kind of terminal multi-mode terminal. When the multi-mode terminal is under the coverage of several networks, the control software will select one interface to access Internet depending on specific policies. If the mobile terminal wants to roam between different networks when it is in communication, the handoff mechanisms between the hybrid networks become a critical issue.

II. WIRELESS DATA COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES A. GPRS technology GPRS (General Packet Radio System) is the packet mode extension of GSM [2]. It uses the same air interface with GSM. The voice traffic and the data packet share the same physical channel, but the new logical GPRS radio channels are defined. Because the GPRS can utilize the current GSM infrastructures, it can be evolved from GSM networks smoothly. It is sure that the GPRS technology will be widely deployed.
HLR

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G G S N S G S N

Intranet

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BTS MH BTS

BSS MSC/VLR

Fig. 1. GPRS network architecture GPRS network architecture is illustrated in Figure 1. As in GSM, the mobile host (MH) accesses the GPRS network through the base transceiver station (BTS), which covers specific area. Each BTS and the MHs that it services form a cell. Each GPRS base station controller (BSC) and one or more BTSs that it controls form one base station subsystem (BSS). Two service nodes are defined in GPRS: serving GPRS support node (SGSN) and gateway GPRS support node (GGSN). The GGSN acts as the interface to public data networks such as Internet and contains the routing information to be used to tunnel packets to the MH through SGSN. Each SGSN is in charge of one or more BSS and it is responsible for location management through HLR and MSC/VLR and responsible for delivery of packets. The SGSNs and GGSN are interconnected through an IP based intranet backbone. When a data packet reaches the GGSN, GGSN determines the MH the packet belongs to and the SGSN the MH is served. Then the packet is forwarded to the SGSN and is further delivered to MH by the SGSN. B. Wireless LAN technology The Wireless LAN (WLAN) [6] defined by IEEE 802.11 committee is a wireless extension of the LAN technologies.

0-7803-7589-0/02/$17.00 2002 IEEE

PIMRC 2002

Its network architecture and protocol stacks are illustrated in Figure 2.

B SS1 FixedH ost B SS2

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Internet

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Internet
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A PPL ICA TIO N TCP IP 802.11M A C 802.11PH Y

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Fig. 3. Mobile IP principle When MH enters new subnet, it needs handoff. It acquires a new COA and registers it to HA again, so that HA can correctly forward IP packets to it. During the time between MH leaving its old foreign subnet and HA receiving MHs new registration request message, because HA doesnt know MHs current COA, it still forwards those packets whose destination address is MH to the old FA, and these packets will be dropped by the old FA. It is possible that the connection will be disrupted. If the distance between the MH and HA is a bit long, the disruption time will be large. In this case, decreasing handoff delay and packet loss is the crucial issue for Mobile IP handoff. Mobile IP is proposed to support mobility in computer network. But because of its characteristic of easy realization, Mobile IP can be used in many wireless networks to support mobility. B. Adopting Mobile IP to support mobility between GPRS and WLAN In order to support mobility between the two networks, we use a peer network structure. That is, GPRS and WLAN access Internet as peer networks, and implement the function of Mobile IP respectively. In GPRS network, we propose to implement the HA function at GGSN. When MH whose home network is GPRS moves to a foreign network (it is possibly not GPRS, such as WLAN), it registers to HA (GGSN) its current COA through the FA at the foreign network. GGSN checks all the IP packets that came from outside Internet. Once there are some packets whose destination is MH, it acts as HA, that is, it re-encapsulates these IP packets and forwards them to MH by tunnel. We can also implement the FA function at GGSN, but we propose to implement it at SGSN. Then the FA function can be distributed to the SGSNs, but not centralized at GGSN, which can alleviate the burden of GGSN. When MH moves to GPRS network, which is a foreign network to it, GGSN will assign an IP address to it (assuming IPG). IPG can be a private IP address, but also can be a public one. At this time, SGSN acts as the FA of MH, so it broadcasts the Agent Advertisement messages to MH [5]. MH registers the IP address of SGSN (assuming as IPS) as its COA to the HA. SGSN relays this registration

802.11M A C 802.3M A C 802.11PH Y 802.3PH Y

Fig. 2. WLAN network architecture and protocol stack architecture In the WLAN, each service access point (AP) covers a cell. In IEEE 802.11, each single cell is defined as a basic service set (BSS). Several BSSs can form an extended service set (ESS). IEEE 802.11 only defines the communication between MH and AP (the physical layer and data link layer). The organization of ESS is not defined yet. As the representatives of wireless wide area and local area data communication networks respectively, the GPRS and the WLAN will be deployed widespread. MH can access Internet through each of them. If the MH wants to roam between the two networks freely while not disrupting the current connection, these two networks should support host mobility. In the next section we will introduce how to achieve this goal through Mobile IP [5].

III. ADOPTING MOBILE IP TO SUPPORT MOBILITY A. Mobile IP Traditional IP technology cant support mobility in IP layer. IETF defines Mobile IP. Mobile IP introduces two network entities: home agent (HA) and foreign agent (FA) to manage mobility. When MH is in its home subnet (its initial subnet), it uses normal IP protocol to communicate. While it enters the foreign subnet (other subnets except home subnet), it acquires an IP address, called care of address (COA). It then sends registration message to HA to inform HA its current location, COA. The data packets sent by correspondent host (CH) to MH arrive at MHs home subnet by normal IP routing. HA captures these packets on behalf of MH, and encapsulates them with new IP header, whose destination address is COA, source address is HA (it is tunneling). Then the encapsulated packets are forwarded to MHs COA. FA or MH restores the original IP packets. Data packets from MH to CH are routed normally. The flow of data transmission is illustrated as Figure 3.

message, and records a mapping: <MH, IPG> in its database. When HA receives the registration message, it forwards the data packets belonging to MH to SGSN. When SGSN receives these packets, it looks up in the database and fines the mapping of MH. It de-encapsulates these packets, and re-encapsulates them to new IP packets, whose destination address is IPG and source address is IPS. SGSN forwards the new packets to MH using GPRS routing mechanisms. At last, MH de-encapsulates the IP packets and restores the original IP packets. The packets from MH to CH are sent to SGSN firstly, and then are tunneled to GGSN. They are forwarded to Internet by the GGSN at last. When MH moves in the service area of a SGSN, it only considers handoff between different BSSs (This is a problem of link layer handoff.); when it moves between different SGSNs, it should take the Mobile IP handoff. It should register the new SGSN to its HA. The mobility support in WLAN is comparatively simple. WLAN itself defines physical layer and data link layer, so it only need add the layer 3Mobile IP function to WLAN network: adding the HA and FA module using hardware or software in the fixed network it connects. The HA and FA function can be implemented in a router or a host (Illustrated in Figure 2). So, these two kinds of networks can both provide mobility support while MH moves between them arbitrarily. IV. MOBILE IP HANDOFF BETWEEN WLAN AND GPRS A. Handoff policy Before Mobile IP handoffs, MH or network should firstly decide the handoff depending on certain policy. Handoff policies can be classified into three categories [7]: network controlled handoff; network controlled and MH assisted handoff; mobile-controlled handoff. In Mobile IP, handoff is entirely controlled by MH. Handoff policy is to detect network situation and to decide whether it matches the handoff criterion. The basic network situation is received signal strength-RSS or received signal power-P. Under wireless circumstances, the RSS is a random process. If handoff decision is only dependent on RSS, there will be ping-pong effect, that is, MH is keeping on handoff between the two base stations to and forth. So it needs some complicated methods to make handoff decision. Traditional decision algorithms include [8]: (1) RSS: The BS whose signal is being received with the largest strength is selected (choose the new BS if RSSnew>RSSold ) (2) RSS plus Threshold: A handoff is decided if the RSS of a new BS exceeds that of the current one and the signal

strength of the current BS is below a threshold T (choose the new BS if RSSnew>RSSold and RSSold <T). (3) RSS plus Hysteresis: A handoff is decided if the RSS of a new BS is greater than that of the old BS by a hysteresis margin H (choose the new BS if RSSnew>RSSold+H). (4) RSS, Hysteresis and Threshold: A handoff is decided if the RSS of a new BS exceeds that of the current BS by a hysteresis margin H and the signal strength of the current BS is below a threshold T (choose the new BS if RSSnew>RSSold+H and RSSold <T) (5) Algorithm plus Dwell Timer: Sometimes a dwell timer is used with the above algorithms. A timer is started the instant the condition in the algorithm is true. If the condition continues to be true until the timer expires, a handoff is performed. B. The characteristics of Mobile IP handoff between WLAN and GPRS MH handoff between WLAN and GPRS has three important properties. First, the two networks service area is overlapped. This means MH is under the coverage of at least one of the two networks and MH is able to communicate with the network whenever. If this character is utilized, we can decrease the handoff delay and packets loss to a little extent. Second, two network support different data rate. WLAN can support a data rate of 2Mbit/s, while GPRS can only supply tens to hundreds kbit/s. So MH should utilize the WLAN as long as possible. For example, the throughput of communicating in WLAN for 1s at the data rate of 2 Mbit/s equals to that in GPRS for 20s at the data rate of 100 kbit/s. Therefore, the priority of handoff from WLAN to GPRA is the lowest; in the opposite direction, the priority is the highest, and the handoff should be executed immediately. Third, because of heterogeneous networks, the signal power received from the BSs of the different networks is not comparable. So the handoff policies mentioned above are not applicable, and different network should adopt different threshold. Furthermore, when MH is moving on the boundary of the service area of WLAN, it will result in on ping-pong effect for not only the variety of wireless signal, but also the MHs movement. C. Our scheme According to the first character mentioned above, we propose to use the multi-tunnel technology in Mobile IP [5]. The HA copies the same IP packet destined to MH and sends them to multi destinations through multi-tunnel; According to the second character, we propose to utilize a dwell timer to control the handoff; According to the third, we adopt two thresholds for the signal strength received from WLAN (RSSWLAN): TOFF and TON to control the handoff from and to the WLAN respectively.

We separate the entire handoff process into two phases: prehandoff phase and handoff confirm phase. (1) Handoff from WLAN to GPRS network If the signal strength that MH receives from the WLAN BS is lower than the threshold TOFF, and this status persists for TDWELL1, then a handoff will be performed. If MH detects that RSSWLAN<TOFF, it comes into the prehandoff phase. MH sends the HA a registration message through the FA in GPRS network (assumed as FAGPRS), indicating that it is a pre-handoff registration message by setting some reserved bit in the Mobile IP registration message. At the same time a dwell timer begins to time. The timing policy is: when RSSWLAN>TOFF, the timer is reseted to zero; when RSSWLAN<TOFF, the timer begins to time. After sending the pre-handoff message, MH remains communicating with WLAN. The FAGPRS records the MHs status as pre-handoff. When the HA receives the pre-handoff registration message, it begins to multi-tunnel the packet. It copies the IP packet destined to MH and sends them to the FA in WLAN (assumed as FAWLAN) and FAGPRS respectively. When the FAGPRS receives the IP packet, it only keeps it in a FIFO buffer, but not sends it over the air interface. When the MH is in the status of pre-handoff, it checks the dwell timer every TDWELL1 interval. If the value of the timer is zero, it means RSSWLAN>TOFF. So the MH leaves the prehandoff status and communicates with WLAN normally. If the value of the timer is greater than zero but lower than TDWELL1, it means RSSWLAN<TOFF and once RSSWLAN>TOFF in the last interval. The signal strength is still not stable. The MH sends the pre-handoff registration message to HA again and remains in the pre-handoff status. Once the value of timer is lager than TDWELL1, it enters the handoff confirm phase. If the value of dwell timer is equal to or greater than TDWELL1, it means the MH has dwelled in the status for TDWELL1 interval. Then MH moves to the handoff confirm phase. Once the MH decides to handoff formally, it changes its interface to GPRS and sends HA the formal registration message through FAGPRS to confirm the handoff. When receiving the formal registration message, the HA stops multi-tunneling, and only tunnels the IP packets to FAGPRS. The FAGPRS sends the content of the buffer to MH. Whatever the HA or FAGPRS, if they have not received any registration message (pre-handoff or formal message) for 2TDWELL1 interval since the last pre-handoff registration message, they will leave the pre-handoff status and communicate normally. (2) Handoff from WLAN to GPRS network The handoff procedure is similar as mentioned above. But the MH checks whether the RSSWLAN is greater than TON. If so, the MH enters into pre-handoff phase. If the MH dwells in this status for TDWELL2 interval, it moves into the handoff confirm phase. (3) Several note:

To use the WLAN as long as possible, we set TDWELL1 > TDWELL2; To be more stable, we set TOFF<TON. Otherwise, there will be more handoffs; To save the resource of the wireless link, we propose the MH to notify the new FA some information of the last IP packet it receives in the registration message, for example the last IP packets ID. Then the new FA can know which packets MH has received and only sends the packets that MH has not received. D. The analysis of our proposal From the description above, we can learn some features of our proposal: (1) Prevent from the ping-pong effect; (2) Decrease the handoff delay to a little extent; Especially when MH moves from the WLAN to GPRS network, the delay can even be decreased to zero because the MH is also connected to the GPRS network in an idle status; (3) It decreases the packet loss to a little degree by employing the multi-tunnel; (4) The main cost of our proposal is that the HA should send two copies of the same IP packet to two destinations. It wastes some bandwidth. But the time that multi-tunneling lasts is very short, so the cost is very small; (5) What is important that: any proposal for handoff between hybrid networks should not change the physical and MAC layer of each network, but can only modify the network layer and above; In the handoff of Mobile IP, to achieve compatibility, the proposal should not change the network entities except the Mobile IP entities such as HA, MH, FA. We can learn that our proposal meets these two points. Our proposal is implemented in the network layer and only modifies some parts of MH, HA and FA. V. CONCLUSION In the future, mobility support between the hybrid networks will become popular. And the handoff between hybrid networks is becoming a critical issue. In this paper we propose a new scheme to implement the handoff. When MH handoffs between hybrid networks, the network conditions that the MH is under will change thoroughly, such as the bandwidth, the delay. In the future, the adaptive service will be dominant in the network. How the adaptive services can learn the network condition change caused by handoff is also an important problem. AKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work is supported by NSFC (National Natural Science Foundation of China) (grant number: 60072036). REFERENCES
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