Beyond-3G Networking: fully All IP Challenge and Key Issues

Li Chunhua
Institute of Network Technology and Information Security,
School of Computer, National University of Defense Technology
410073 Changsha, China
chli@nudt.edu.cn
Abstracts: The convergence of IP and mobile communications can bring many benefits. It i s a
common view that 3G systems and beyond should take all IP and even fully all IP infrastructure.
However, it is difficult to achieve fully all IP. There are many problems need to be study and it is a
grand challenge t o achieve fully all IP in Beyond-3G system. This paper introduces the stat of the art in
the area and highlights the key technical issues.
Keywords : All IP, mobile communication, Beyond-3G
1. Introduction
The commercial deployment of 3G systems
in many countries has been delay for certain
reasons, and many people have question whether
3G will happen at all. Even that, the industry and
academia is already laying the research work for
future mobile communication systems, which
are commonly referred to be Beyond-3G (B3G)
systems
[1]
.
Why do people lay the research work for
B3G before the deployment of 3G? There are
many motivations: (1) 3G performances may not
be sufficient to meet the needs of future high-
performance multimedia applications such as
live video. We need to extend radio link capacity
by an order of magnitude. (2) Multiple standards
for 3G make it difficult to roam and interoperate
across networks. We need global mobility and
service portability. (3) We need to support
multiple radio access interface, so we can switch
to the interface with the best performance cost
ratio in different environment.
The generation of mobile communication
systems is identified by the wireless technology
it employed. For 3G systems, there are three
main air interfaces: TD-SCDMA, WCDMA, and
CDMA2000. In beyond 3G eras, there still exist
multiple air interfaces, as shows in Figure 1.
It is an inevitable trend for the convergence
of IP and mobile communications. It is a
common view that 3G systems and beyond
should take all IP and even fully all IP
infrastructure. As a successful universal network
layer protocol for Internet, IP is also becoming
promising for future mobile communications
systems. Notices that all IP may be partial,
which means that there is only subsection of the
system is IP based. In this paper, we focus on
fully all IP. By fully all IP we refers to two
meanings: (1) IP support in core network, radio
access network and mobile station. (2) IP
transport for both user data and signaling.
The remainder of this paper is organized as
follow: first the requirement for all IP
networking is described, and then stat of the art
is introduced. Third, all IP network architecture
is discussed. At last, we conclude with the key
issues in all IP B3G networking.
2. All IP Requirements
Why do we need all IP in B3G systems?
All IP network is cost and time effective. In
an open infrastructure such as IP network, new
value-add services and applications can be
created and provided quickly and easily at a
comparable low cost. Further more, Abundant
exist applications and software technologies
developed for fixed IP networks can be transfer
to all IP mobile networks. These can reduce the
cost and save the time of the network operator
and service provider.
IP based
Multi- Networks
TD-SCDMA
WCDMA
WLAN
CDMA2000
B3G
Figure 1. 3G Systems and Beyond
Universal mobility management requires
All IP network. As no wireless technology has
emerged as a common solution, in B3G system
there will exist multiple wireless accesses and
the mobile station may have multiple radio
interfaces. As the mobility management in
different radio access subsystem is not
compatible with each other, it is difficult for the
mobile station to move from one radio
subsystem to another. If there is a common
network layer protocol such as IP above different
radio layer 2 protocols , above problem can be
solved by providing a universal mobility on that
layer.
All IP network fit the developing trend of
the traffic in mobile network. Today the main
traffic in the mobile network has been voice.
However, IP traffic is increased. It is estimated
that IP traffic will be dominant in the near future.
At that time, with the deployment of VoIP, all
traffic will be IP-based.
3. State of the Art
With respective to the convergence of IP
and mobile communication, there are some
organizations and research groups doing lots of
works.
3GPP
The Third Generation Partnership Project
[2]
(3GPP) specifies the 3rd generation network
building on the 2nd GSM networks. To be
compatible with the 2nd Generation GSM
networks, the first release is almost identical to
the existing networks. Later releases have
incorporated IP. However, 3GPP does not adopt
the Internet Protocol model of networking. IP
transmission is provided by a tunneling
mechanism, in which incoming IP packets are
tunneled by GGSN using GTP, and finally de-
capsulated at the GTP destination. Besides,
GPRS-based mobility was already defined, so
the IP network enhancements were considered
on top of GPRS.
3G.IP
3G.IP
[3]
is a group of Operators and Vendors
that share a common 3G network architecture
strategy. 3G.IP is formed in June 1999. Its
mission is to promote a common IP based
wireless system for third generation mobile
communications system, and promotes
alignment between wireless and fixed IP
architectures. Its objectives are to define a 3G
network architecture based on packet
technologies and IP telephony for simultaneous
real and non-real time services. Its core network
is based on evolved GPRS. The solution of 3G.IP
is introduced to 3GPP.
3GPP2
The Third Generation Partnership Project
2
[4]
(3GPP2) specifies the 3rd generation
network building on the CDMA 2nd Generation
network. 3GPP2 takes IETF Mobile IP to
enhance the network architecture to provide IP
capabilities. In the 3GPP2 architecture, IP
connectivity reaches to the BTS. BSC is a router
node containing some radio control functions.
3GPP2 has undertaken the work to enhance the
IP architecture for mobile multimedia services.
MWIF
Mobile Wireless Internet Forum
[5]
(MWIF)
is an international non-profit industry
association. Its mission is to drive an open
Internet architecture that enables seamless
integration of mobile communication with IP,
meeting the needs of network operators and
Internet service providers, and is independent of
the air interface. It is intended to influence 3GPP
and 3GPP2 towards a common architecture.
ITU IMT-2000 and Beyond
ITU-R WP8F is responsible for the overall
radio system aspects of IMT-2000 and beyond.
ITU-T SSG
[6]
is responsible for studies relating
to network aspects of IMT-2000 and beyond,
including wireless Internet, convergence of
mobile and fixed networks, mobility
management, mobile multimedia functions,
internetworking, interoperability and
enhancements to existing ITU-T
Recommendations on IMT-2000.
WWRF
In August 2001, Alcatel, Ericsson,
Motorola, Nokia, and Siemens formed jointly
Wireless World Research Forum
[7]
(WWRF).
The objective of the forum is to formulate
visions on strategic future research directions in
the wireless field, among industry and academia,
and to generate, identify, and promote research
areas and technical trends for mobile and
wireless system technologies. It is intended to
constructively contribute to the work done
within the UMTS Forum, ETSI, 3GPP, IETF,
ITU, and other relevant bodies regarding
commercial and standardisation issues derived
from the research work. The forum is open to all
interested parties. The work of WWRF was
distributed among four working groups, among
them WG3 care for New Communication
Environment and Heterogeneous Networks.
The vision of WWRF is a means to achieve
total mobile communications convergence and to
develop a seamless mobile network like the
Internet. This vision is enabled by WWRF
networking, which undertakes enormous
challenge to make the necessary evolution and
enhancements of IPv6 networking technologies.
Compared to the evolution of access
technologies, the concept of the WWRF is
complementary. Using enhanced IP networking
technologies to integrate hybrid systems (current
and future systems) as a unified network, it
enables a truly seamless mobile Internet beyond
simply wireless access to the Internet.
IETF
Within the Internet Engineering Task
Forces
[8]
(IETF) community, some draft
documents address the IP and mobility. Mobile
IP has been developed to support mobile nodes.
However, Existing IP networking technologies
do not meet the requirements to enable all IP
B3G systems, especially with respect to the
support of mobility, QoS and security. As a
result, IETF has done some work to enhance the
support for mobility, QoS, security in mobile
environment.
EU IST Project Cluster Systems beyond
3G
The scope of IST Project cluster Systems
beyond 3G
[9]
(SB3G) include: Evolution of
access systems, including terrestrial and satellite
technologies, both telecom and interactive
broadcasting systems; IP in core network and
radio access network including mobility
management; Inter-working of existing, evolving
and emerging access systems.
Its objectives are to achieve the integration
of mobile and fixed networks, and to allow the
seamless transition and service provisioning
across heterogeneous access networks.
Asia
China 863 communications program, Japan
mWIF, and Korea 4G mobile communication
vision research committee's also do the works in
the field of B3G networking.
4. All IP Network
In B3G, IP should be up to the mobile
station. For the network architecture of B3G, Our
vision is the same as MIND
[10]
. In MINDs
opinion, the core network and radio access
network are IP based, and mobile station support
IP in lay 3, hence data transmission is end-to-end
IP based. The basic network architecture for all
IP B3G is as Figure 2, it includes:
Mobile stations: it support IP and might
have implemented multiple interfaces of
different wireless technologies, such as
WCDMA and WLAN.
IP Radio Gateways: providing an interface
between a wireless and a wired network domain.
It is assumed that both represent different IP-
subnets.
IP router: IP routers in the core network and
radio access network are responsible for the
forwarding of IP packets. There is no need for
MSC, GMSC, SGSN, and GGSN.
Servers: Mobility management related
server such as Home Agent (HA) and Foreign
Agent (FA), which taken the functionality of
original HLR and VLR.
Notice that, there is no RNC. The original
RNC functionality is distributed into IP radio
gateway, radio resource manager and other
server.
The protocol stacks of some entities are
showed in Figure 3.
5. All IP Key Issues
Existing IP networking technologies do not
meet the requirements to enable all IP B3G
systems, especially with respect to the support of
mobility, QoS and security.
5.1 Micro Mobility Management
According wireless network hierarchy,
there are two types of mobility: macro mobility
and micro mobility. Macro mobility takes place
when mobile station moves between access
points that are close to each other. Micro
mobility takes place when mobile station moves
between distant access points.
Mobile IP is intended to provide macro
mobility. However, most of the handovers occur
within an administrative domain and standard
Mobile IP is unable to provide acceptable
handover interruption times for micro mobility.
Hence Mobile IP needs to be enhanced to handle
micro mobility. The focus of the current work
about mobility management is on micro
mobility, a large number of micro-mobility
extensions to Mobile IP have been proposed
within the IETF framework.
5.2 IP-based Soft Handover
IP router
mobile
station
I P bassed
Access
Net work
IP based
Core
Net work
WLAN
switch
Foreign Agent
Radio Resources
manager
AAA Server
SS7
PSTN
Call Server
SGW
MGW
router
IP radi o
gateway
Application
Servers
STP
Figure 2. All IP Network Architecture
Hand over is a process allowing a mobile
stations session in progress to continue without
interruption when it moves from one cell to
another. There are two kinds of hand over: hard
hand over and soft hand over.
Currently, Mobile IP doesnt support soft
handover. How to distribute multiple IP packets
of the same data via different IP radio gateway to
the same mobile station is a key problem, as
shows in Figure 4. IP multicast may be used
during soft handoff. However, IP multicast may
cause packets to be sent to mobile stations that
are not the intended destination of the packets,
wasting valuable resources in the wireless
network and on the mobile station
5.3 IP QOS
How to provide end-to-end QoS in all IP
B3G system is one of the key issues. Most
existing work in QoS issues has targeted in fixed
IP network, for example IntServ, DiffServ and
MPLS. Providing QoS in mobile IP network is
only just starting to be considered. In addition to
the challenge of maintaining fixed IP network
level of QoS, some character, such as handover
between IP radio gateway, frequent changes of
IP address, and contention for radio resource,
increase the complexity of QoS mechanism.
Unlike in fixed network environment, the
mobile station can change its point of attachment
to the network many times during a session. In
addition, the radio link has less predictable
properties than a wire link. Hence, to enable
QoS support in mobile IP network, the
interactions of IP QoS with mobility, link layer
must be study.
5.4 Security
Internet and IP are open and there are many
insecure factors. However, security is the most
important one for commercial networks. Hence,
no need to say any more, security must be
guaranteed.
Above we introduce mobility, QoS and
security separately. In fact, IP networking issues
such as mobility, QoS, security, etc, should not
be discussed and treated independently. The
interaction of mobility, QoS and security should
be study carefully.
6. Conclusion
All IP B3G systems are a means to achieve
seamless mobile Internet. However, it is difficult
to achieve fully all IP. It requires plenty of
research work to do in the coming years. This
paper introduces the stat of the art in the area and
highlights the key technical issues for all IP
B3G.
References
[1] Frodigh et al, Future generation wireless
networks, IEEE Personal Communications,
VOL. 8, NO.5, October 2001, pages: 10-17
[2] 3GPP http: //www.3gpp.org
[3] 3G.IP http://www.3gip.org
[4] 3GPP2 http: //www.3gpp2.org
[5] MWIF http://www.mwif.org
[6] ITU-T SSG http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/
studygroups/ssg/index.asp
[7] WWRF http://www.wireless-world-
research.org
[8] IETF http://www.ietf.org
[9] EU IST SB3G http://www.cordis.lu/ist/ka4/
mobile/proclu/c/beyond3g.htm
[10] Phil Eardley, et al, Evolving beyond UMTS
- The MIND research project, IEE 3rd Int.
Conf. on 3G Mobile Communication
Technologies, London, UK. May 2002
IP radio
gateway
mobile
station
I P
router
application
server
Application
Layer
L4
I P
L2
L1

Application
Layer
L4
IP
RLC
MAC
L1

IP relay
RLC
MAC
L2
L1 L1

IP relay
L2 L2
L1 L1

signaling
gateway
call server
ISUP
M3UA
SCTP
IP
L2
L1

Signaling relay
MTP3 M3UA
MTP2 SCTP
MTP1 IP
L2 L2
L1 L1

Figure 3. Protocol Stacks
IP router
WLAN
IP radio
gateway
moving moving mobile
station
A B
Figure 4. IP-based Software Hand-over