Protocol for Internetwork Handover between Terrestrial UMTS and Satellite UMTS networks, using Intelligent systems

Aruna Jayasuriya1, John Asenstorfer1, Nirmala Shenoy1, Saman Halgamuge2 Mobile Communications Research Centre, Cooperative Research Centre for Satellite Systems, Institute for Telecommunications Research, University of South Australia, Warrendi Road, Mawson Lakes SA 5095, Australia 2 Mechatronics Research Group, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia E-mail: aruna@spri.levels.unisa.edu.au, Fax: 61 8 8302 3873 1.1 System Architecture
UMTS architecture is designed to integrate different wire and wireless networks together at network level and at system level. Figure 2 highlights different elements of the proposed UMTS network [6] [7]. MT

ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to introduce and analyse a proposed protocol for handover between Satellite UMTS (S-UMTS) and Terrestrial UMTS (T-UMTS) networks in the context of 3rd generation mobile communication systems. 3rd generation mobile communications systems and the need for lower handover blocking probabilities are discussed, first. Then the proposed protocols will be introduced with information flow diagrams for certain cases of internetwork handover. Further key functions required to perform efficient handover is discussed. The paper concludes with the summary of analysis of handover performance for the proposed protocol and their implications. 1. INTRODUCTION UMTS, Universal Mobile Telecommunications System, is the 3rd-generation mobile standard that links mobile personal communications users into multi-media, information-technology and telecommunications services and applications [1][2][3]. To satisfy the predicted traffic demands with efficient use of radio resources and to support the concept of global coverage, mixed cell architecture has been specified in the UMTS standards [3][4]. The cells namely, pico, micro, macro overlap and mobile satellites overlapping the terrestrial cells. Mobile Satellites provides the most effective coverage method to sparsely populated rural areas and they are planned to act as umbrella cells; in effect a backup cell, to macro cells that cover suburban areas. UMTS is designed to support wide band services, requiring up to 2 Mbps. However satellite segments and macro cells will be designed with maximum bit rates of 144 kbps and 384 kbps, respectively. PRMA++ media access protocol was developed to support resource allocation in UMTS and to accommodate different bit rates of traffic by reserving required number of slots in a time frame [5]. UMTS will support future multimedia services, which requires continuos connectivity throughout the entire length of the call, including roaming between different types of networks such as T-UMTS and S-UMTS. This leads to the necessity for an improved handover technique to support seamless handover between macro cells and mobile satellite cells, with reduced handover blocking probability.

BTS BTS BTS CSS GSM BSC IWF CSS

BTS SES

SES LE

ISDN BTS-Base Transceiver System LE-Local Exchange MT-Mobile Terminal CSS-Cell Cite Switch SES-Satellite Earth Station IWF-Interworking functions Figure 1. Integrated UMTS system

1.2 Functional Requirements

A users requirements and service profile is recorded in both networks. The following functional requirements can be listed as a basis of location updating process and the internetwork handover protocols. 1. Users can connect with either Terrestrial or Satellite networks, with the priority given to Terrestrial cells due to the cost factor. 2. Users in both types of networks can be addressed, by referring to the location registration databases at the LEs. 3. Avoid call dropping due to lack of coverage or traffic congestion in terrestrial network, by using satellite network resources. 4. Avoid usage of the Satellite network whenever terrestrial networks with sufficient resources are available.

5. Execute the handover procedure at the best possible time, not only to decrease the probability of unnecessary handovers, but also to decrease the probability of call dropping and at the same time with minimal costs to the user.

1.3 Location Updating

MTs will listen to the broadcast messages in the area and appropriate location updating will be done at the LE. The mobile will only be located with an SES, provided no BTS is available with the required signal level.

2 INTERNETWORK HANDOVER
Special Handover Protocols are to be used in UMTS network elements. They must be capable of handover between intra-network as well as inter-network components. The Quality of Service (QoS) desired in different networks may be different due to their different transmission environments, power levels and allowed bit rates. So these Handover (HO) protocols must also take into the consideration, the fact that, different network components are designed to perform with different QoSs and if the service profile permits, graceful degradation/upgradation of QoS is allowed over such network boundaries.

resources from the target BTS. If no resources have been found during a certain time CSS requests a SAT measurement from MT via old BTS (M3,M4). From this measurement (M5) appropriate target SES is identified and a HO_REQUEST(M6) is sent to the SES via LE. If SES has resources available a HO_INFO (M7) packet is sent to the MT with all timing advance information and frequency information. Upon receiving this packet MT sends a HO_ ACCEPT(M8) packet to the system through the old BTS and starts transmitting via Satellite(M9) according to the timing information supplied by the system. After receiving this SES will provide the synchronisation information(M10) for further transmission from MT.
MT M1 BTS M2 M4 M5 M5 M6 M6 M7 M7 M8 M8 M8 M9 M9 M10 M10 M7 M7 M3 CSS LE SES SAT

2.1 Proposed Handover Protocol

The proposed HO protocol distributes the HO processing over different network elements. However the amount of processing hardware that can be included in any component is limited to power and size considerations of each device, which is covered in more detail later. The geographical area under consideration for internetwork HO is boundaries of macrocells, mostly in rural areas, with radii of about 30-35kms. It has been shown that signal strengths decrease gradually at these distances from BTSs [8][9]. This provides enough time for superior processing and decision-making schemes to be implemented. So intelligent systems such as Knowledge Base Systems can be used in internetwork HO processing. This will prevent too early, too late or wrong HO decisions being made at the network boundaries. On the other hand S-UMTS to T-UMTS handover is not time critical because Satellite network will continue to provide service for the user, using its near global coverage. However the cost to handle a call through the S-UMTS network will be higher, suggesting the transference of Satellite users as soon as possible to terrestrial networks for attractive tariff schemes, and best possible service. Figures 2 &3 describe the proposed HO protocol for special scenarios. If the BTS signal measurement (M1) is low BTS sends a HO_REQUEST(M2) to the CSS requesting

Figure 2. Information flow for the case BTS to Satellite Handover (special case of using Satellite as a backup for BTS-BTS HO) Satellite to BTS HO protocol uses a similar information flow and is shown in figure 3. HO is initiated by SES, when a BTS of sufficient signal is present, and resources from target BTS(N2,N3) is requested via the corresponding LE and CSS. Mobile Terminal (MT) As transmit and processing power is constrained in the MT minimal processing is available to perform a seamless handover. They must be provided with functionality to perform in both types of networks via a common protocol. Also they are capable of responding to the HO commands, issued by network components in the higher layers, to perform different HOs like BTS to BTS, BTS to SAT, inter SAT, intra SAT, to mention a few. Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Satellites Payload of LEO satellites intended to be used in the S-UMTS networks is also power critical and they will only act as retransmission points as far as internetwork traffic and HO are concerned.

MT

BTS

CSS N1

LE

SES N1 N2

SAT

appropriate CSS, via the LE. The SES will keep trying until it gets the acceptance from the T-UMTS network.

N2 N2 N3 N3 N4 N5 N6 N5 N7 N5 N3 N4

2.2 S-UMTS as a backup for macro-macro cell HO

The S-UMTS network can be used as a backup to improve the performance of inter BTS handover. If the user is willing to use the S-UMTS network the user can be temporarily transferred to the S-UMTS network when the target BTS dont have the capacity. After this transfer the SES will keep trying to reserve resources from the likely target BTSs for the MT. The MTs will be immediately transferred back to T-UMTS network once resources have been found.

Figure 3. Information flow for the case Satellite to BTS Handover

N1 -BTS & Satellite signal measurements N2 -HO_REQUEST N3 -HO_INFO (target cell) N4 -HO_INFO (target cell), timing info N5 -HO_ACCEPT N6 -Data transmission according to timing advance set by the system N7 -Synchronisation information from BTS

2.3 Timing adjustments for HO

When a user is transferred to a satellite cell from a BTS, the MTs transmitter and receiver timing should be adjusted due to the large difference in propagation delays for the two networks. This is essential as a single packet out of synchronisation can collide with another packet increasing packet loss. As the SES is aware of the exact position of the LEO satellites at a given time and the approximate position of the MT, approximate propagation delay and hence the correct timing advance required by the MT can be calculated in the system. This will be sent to the MT as part of the HO information and MT will start transmitting according to these values. Protocols in the LE will ensure correct switching between T-UMTS and SUMTS circuits. For a cell with a 30km radius and a LEO orbit of 1000kms the worst case timing misalignment is 6 s. The proposed PRMA++ media access and transport scheme only allows a guard band of 6.86s which may be not adequate when other sources of timing errors are taken into account. One way of resolving this problem is to reserve 2 slots, at the end of the frame, for HO users, and the initial 3 packets (the maximum time for the synchronisation to reach the MT after its first transmission) can be transmitted in the middle of these two slots to avoid collisions between adjacent packets. This will require re-allocation or packing of slots for users already in the system. Another method is to identify the exact location of the MT using signal strength measurements and leading to a more accurate timing hence avoiding collisions in the first few packets. Seamless HO from S-UMTS to T-UMTs requires buffering for up to 2 packets, for the worst case, as packets from BTS can reach the LE quickly while

Base Transceiver System (BTS) BTS initiates all the handovers triggered by insufficient signal strengths to maintain a call. It sends a HO_REQUEST packet to the CSS indicating the best cell for handover. This can be a terrestrial cell or a satellite cell if, no terrestrial cell with sufficient signal strength is close by. Cell Site Switch (CSS) CSS initiates traffic handovers to distribute the load through all the cells as much as possible when individual cells traffic increase load beyond some threshold. The appropriate BTS then selects the MTs that can be handed over to neighbouring cells while maintaining an acceptable signal level in their target cell. CSS acts as the switching point for intra CSS HO and coordinates the HO procedure. If there are no radio resources available in the target BTS, the CSS requests a Satellite signal measurement from the MT, via the old BTS. If the MT receives the sufficient signal strength from a satellite, the CSS will initiate a HO to the S-UMTS network. Local Exchange (LE) LE acts as the switching point between T-UMTS and S-UMTS networks and coordinates the HO between these two networks. Satellite Earth Station (SES) SES monitors the signal strengths of BTSs as received by the MT, under the S-UMTS network. If a MT receives a BTS signal above the threshold required to maintain a link, the SES will initiate a HO to the

packets from S-UMTS network are still in flight. LE can either increase the transmitter rate temporarily by using additional slots or can simply discard these 2 packets when a particular service is not sensitive to limited packet loss.

2.4 Decision-making using Intelligent Systems

Intelligent systems can be used to supervise the decision making process. UMTS users can be categorised according to a priority level they requested from the service provider at their subscription depending on the type of services the user requests. Grade of service (GoS) parameters such as HO blocking guaranteed for each user will depend on this priority scheme. For users requiring lower HO blocking probabilities Mobility Modelling and prediction methods can be used to establish virtual connections between the most probable target cells. This will allow to provide a very low, or zero, blocking probability at a higher cost. Again using the satellite as a backup for the HO allows low blocking probabilities but at higher costs. Knowledge Base Systems such as Multiple Shape Basis Function Networks (MSBFN) [12] can be used to model the mobility patterns for required users. Following information can be used with intelligent systems to improve the performance of the HO process. 1. Mobility modelling and prediction 2. Traffic intensity in various cells to achieve uniform utilisation of cells through HO. 3. Provision of services and QoS according to the user service profile requested at subscription. 4. Improved processing of signal strength measurements to avoid unnecessary HO. 5. Identify particular HO patterns in cells and use them to build a semi-virtual connection between those cells (for example a set of BTS running along a highway, near a turn off, may have large percentage of its users moving along the highway) Although the signal strengths are assumed to be slowly varying in the region of interest, sudden decreases in the signal strength variations are expected due to shadowing effects. Various methods have been investigated to decrease the probability of taking a wrong decision at such instances [10][11]. Wrong decisions can be improved using intelligent systems to identify locations of these sudden variations and hence accounting for them in processing of signal strength measurements.

evenly in the network. Several simulation sets were carried out using different random call generation patterns. Data ignoring transient period, were averaged to obtain the following results. The following parameters were used to analyse the performance of the proposed internetwork handover protocols. 1. 2. 3. HO blocking probability HO interruption delay Improvement in Blocking probability due to using satellite as a backup for BTS-BTS HO (case of congested cells) Additional time spent in the S-UMTS network when BTSs are present but congested, delaying HO to the terrestrial network.

4.

Table 1 summarises the simulation results for Internetwork HO performance. The satellite is used as a backup for BTS-BTS HO. Blocking probability 0.88% Avg. system utilisation 85% Avg. HO delay 158.5ms

Table 1-Handover performance

Figure 4 1 - cumulative density function for HO interruption time Figure 4 shows the cdf for HO interruption delay. The large step around 160ms confirms the average delay of 158.5 ms obtained above. However the blocking probability increases rapidly to 6.5% and HO delay of 280.7ms, when the system utilisation reaches 88%. A congested T-UMTS network is used to evaluate the

3 SIMULATION AND RESULTS

The above HO protocols, without Intelligent Systems for decision-making, were modelled and simulated with 60 users with random trajectories, distributed

Without S-UMTS backup (Case 1)

With S-UMTS backup (Case 2)

HO block. Prob. BTS utilisation SAT utilisation Additional cost of using satellite

8.1% 85% 36% 3.7s

4.5% 87% 45% 7.3s

network as a backup. This is as expected as this effectively increases the resources available for TUMTS handover. This process also results in achieving high utilisations in the T-UMTS network without excessive additional load in the S-UMTS network. This can be thought of as S-UMTS network acting as a buffer for handover users in TUMTS networks, until resources in BTSs are available. It can also be observed that the average additional time users spend in S-UMTS networks (due to lack of T-UMTS resources) is somewhat higher for case 2. This highlights the importance of using the user service profile in HO decisions to make the service attractive to both users requiring moderate GoS at low costs and high GoS at high costs.

Table 2- Improvement in performance for HO from BTS, by using satellite as a backup

5 REFERENCES
[1] J. S.da Silva, B. Barni, B. Arroy-fernadez, European Mobile Communications on the Move, IEEE Communications Magazine, Feb. 1996. [2] S. Chia, The Universal Mobile Telecommunication System, IEEE Comms. Magazine., Dec. 1992 [3] UMTS Task Force Report, Brussels, 1st March 1996 [4] S.T.S. Chia, Flexible System Techniques for Future Personal Communications, IEEE TENCON90 Proc, Paper 2.2 September 1990 [5] J. Dunlop, J. Irvine, D. Robertson, P. Cosimini, Performance of a Statically Multiplexed Access Mechanism for a TDMA Radio Interface, IEEE Personal Communications, June 1995. [6] J.P. Castro, A. El-Hoiydi, Space segment integration in future Mobile Systems, International Mobile Satellite Conference 1997. [7] ETSI Technical Report May 1995 [8] S.T.S Chia, A Handover Protocol for a Mixed Cell system, 6th IEE int. Conf. On mobile Radio Personal Communication. Warwick, RI, pp 170176, Feb 1991. [9] S.T.S. Chia, P. Snow, Low base station antenna propagation measurements at 900 MHz and 1700 MHz on flat open terrain, BT technology journal 1991, 84-92. [10] W. Zhao, R. Tafazolli, B.G. Evans, Internetwork Handover Performance Analysis in a GSM-Satellite Integrated Mobile Communication system, IEEE journal on selected areas in communications, vol. 15, no. 8, Oct. 1997 [11] J.M. Holzman, A. Sampath, Adaptive averaging methodology for handoffs in cellular systems, IEEE Trans. Veh. Technol., vol. 44, Feb 1995. [12] A. Jayasuriya, S.K. Halgamuge, An Enhanced Clustering Method for Multiple Shape Basis Function Networks, World Conference for Computer Intelligence, Alaska, May 1998

Figure 5. Additional cost for using S-UMTS network (additional cost vs. no of HOs made at that cost)

4 CONCLUSION
As a conclusion of the analysis and performance evaluation of the proposed HO protocols, it can be stated that the proposed protocols provide blocking probability of 0.88% and 153.5 ms delay for HO which is an acceptable GoS in handover between SUMTS and T-UMTS networks. However the performance must be improved to decrease the sensitivity to blocking probabilities even under load conditions greater than 85%. BTS to BTS HO blocking probability improves dramatically when users are allowed to use S-UMTS