1

Trial Lecture
Vertical and Horizontal Handoff in Wireless Internet Access

Tor K Moseng Centre for Quantifiable Quality of Service in Communication Networks Dept. of Telematics, NTNU 19.06.09

Tor K Moseng, Handoff in Wireless Internet Access

Outline
Introduction

Horizontal Handover
Handover in GSM Handover in WiFi

Vertical Handover
Handover UMTS-WiFi

Handover Approaches Standards

IEEE 802.21 UMA

CALM

Visions

Tor K Moseng, Handoff in Wireless Internet Access

Introduction

Wireless Internet Access

Different wireless networks available
E.g. GSM/GPRS, UMTS, WiFi, WiMAX

Mobility is Essential
Changes the users behavior Internet access from any wireless device

Internet

Always best connected

Multi-mode equipment

Tor K Moseng, Handoff in Wireless Internet Access

Introduction

Wireless Internet Access

What is handover?
Changing the point of connection while communicating

Why is handover needed?

Mobility User preferences

What is the objective?

Handover procedure without a users notice Seamless handover

Tor K Moseng, Handoff in Wireless Internet Access

Introduction

Network Coverage

WPAN
Bluetooth RFID

WLAN
WiFi IEEE 802.11

WMAN
WiMAX IEEE 802.16

WWAN
GSM/GPRS UMTS

Satellite
GPS GALILEO

Metropolitancoverage Local Area Network Home, Hotel, Airport persons Satellite Personal Area Network InaCity wide proximity Wireless WorldwideNetwork Regional, Cellular systems Wide Area Area Network

Tor K Moseng, Handoff in Wireless Internet Access

Introduction Use Case 1 BSC

BS1

BS2

BS3

2. Conversation BS1s still within BS3s 1. Moving out of ended start conversation coverage 4. 3. Connect to BS1 and coverage connect to BS2 BS2s BS3

Tor K Moseng, Handoff in Wireless Internet Access

Introduction Use Case 2

UMTS

WiFi

WiFi

Ethernet

Ethernet WiFi

UMTS

4. 3. 2. Moving indoorhot-spot 1. Wired connection at the working desk into a outdoor

Tor K Moseng, Handoff in Wireless Internet Access

Horizontal Handover

Horizontal Handover
Horizontal handover is when a mobile terminal changes its point of connection within the same type of network
E.g. from a cell to another in GSM E.g. from an access point to another in WiFi

Reasons for handover

Worse signal quality or loss of signal Traffic load balancing Cost
BS1

BSC

BS2

BS3

Tor K Moseng, Handoff in Wireless Internet Access

Horizontal Handover

Handover in GSM
Network-controlled, mobile terminal assisted handover
The network takes the handover decisions The mobile terminal supervises and reports its signal quality

Three types of handover

Intra-BSC handover Inter-BSC handover Inter-MSC handover
MSC BSC

MSC

BSC

BSC

Tor K Moseng, Handoff in Wireless Internet Access

10 Horizontal Handover

Handover in WiFi
Mobile terminal-controlled, network assisted handover
The mobile node chooses new AP to re-associate with The network exchanges information after re-association

Handover in four parts

IAPP (IEEE 802.11f) Distribution System

1a. Probe request 1b. Probe response 2. Authentication 3. Re-association 4. Connection handover

AP1

AP2

BSS1

BSS2 Tor K Moseng, Handoff in Wireless Internet Access

11 Vertical Handover

Vertical Handover
Vertical handover is when a mobile terminal changes its point of connection in a different type of network
E.g. from a wired Ethernet connection to an access point in WiFi E.g. from an access point in WiFi to a cell in UMTS

Reasons for handover

Worse signal quality or loss of signal Performance requirements (e.g. bandwidth) Cost Power consumption
Ethernet UMTS

WiFi

WiFi

Ethernet WiFi UMTS

Tor K Moseng, Handoff in Wireless Internet Access

12 Vertical Handover

Challenges in Vertical Handover

Multi-mode devices

Power consumption
QoS
Available capacity

Security

Timing The business model

Session continuity

Tor K Moseng, Handoff in Wireless Internet Access

13 Vertical Handover

Handover UMTS-WiFi
1. Open coupling
No common subscriber database and billing Poor handover performance

2. Loose coupling
Common subscriber database and billing Improved handover performance

3. Tight coupling
UMTS core network interface must be supported single operator Improved handover performance

Tor K Moseng, Handoff in Wireless Internet Access

14 Vertical Handover

Handover UMTS-WiFi
Internet
AAA

1. 2. 3.

Open coupling Loose coupling Tight coupling

UMTS Core Network WiFi Gateway

RNC

Node B Node B

Node B

AP

AP

AP

Tor K Moseng, Handoff in Wireless Internet Access

15 Handover Approaches

Handover Approaches
Handover objective is a seamless handover
Smooth handover: low loss Fast handover: low delay Smooth and fast handover gives a seamless handover

Lower layers handover

Hard handover Soft handover

Network layer mobility

Mobile IP

Tor K Moseng, Handoff in Wireless Internet Access

16 Handover Approaches

Hard Handover
break before make
Old connection is broken before a new connection is activated Primarily used in FDMA and TDMA systems (e.g. GSM)
Different frequency ranges used in adjacent cells to minimize the interference

When to perform hard handover?

E.g. based on measurements of the signal quality Different schemes to avoid unnecessary handovers

Tor K Moseng, Handoff in Wireless Internet Access

17 Handover Approaches

Soft Handover
make before break
New connection is activated before the old is broken Used in UMTS to improve the signal quality
Uplink and downlink signals may be combined for better signal A mobile may in UMTS spend a large part of the connection time in soft handover Better connection reliability

More seamless handover

Tor K Moseng, Handoff in Wireless Internet Access

18 Handover Approaches

Mobile IP
Changing the point of connection may change the IP-address
Disrupting the on-going session

Mobile IP is a network-layer mobility management solution

Hides the mobile nodes movement from its corresponding node

Two IP-addresses involved

Home Address: the point of contact for corresponding nodes Care-of-Address: the current point of connection

Two agents involved

Home Agent: acts as a proxy and forwards packets to the CoA Foreign Agent: allows mobile nodes to register in foreign subnets

Tor K Moseng, Handoff in Wireless Internet Access

19 Handover Approaches

Mobile IP
Home Network
Home Agent Home Address Care-of-Address Corresponding Node Home Address

1. Session with Home Network 2. Move to a Foreign Network 3. Register its presence and Care-of-address 4. Session with Foreign Network
Care-of-Address Foreign Agent

Foreign Network

Tor K Moseng, Handoff in Wireless Internet Access

20 Standards

Standards for vertical handover

IEEE 802.21 Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) Continous Air-Interface for Long and Medium range (CALM)

Tor K Moseng, Handoff in Wireless Internet Access

21 Standards IEEE 802.21

IEEE 802.21
Support seamless vertical handover
Media Independent Handover (IEEE Std 802.21-2008, January 2009) Assess on-going work related to handover in IEEE, IETF and 3GPP GSM/GPRS, UMTS, IEEE 802.3/11/15.3/16/20

Goals
Framework for vertical handover Different vendors, operators and users

Not covered
Handover policy Security What about the business model?
Tor K Moseng, Handoff in Wireless Internet Access

22 Standards UMA

Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA)

3GPP standard for cellular systems and unlicensed wireless networks handover
A mobile centric version of IEEE 802.21

The UMA Network Controller (UNC)

Provides an interface into mobile operators core network Secure transport of mobile signaling over IP

Extends a mobile operators services over IP-based access networks

Use WiFi to improve coverage and performance of 3G services

Tor K Moseng, Handoff in Wireless Internet Access

23 Standards CALM

CALM
ISO approved framework for continuous communication across various interfaces and media for vehicular users
ISO TC204/WG16 Wide Area Communications IEEE 802.11/11p/15/16e/20, 2G/3G, and ITS systems

Application support
In-vehicle Internet access ITS applications (focus on Vehicle Safety Communication) V2V communication

Vertical handover based on IPv6 protocols (ISO 21210)

Tor K Moseng, Handoff in Wireless Internet Access

24 Visions

Visions
4G network: Universal wireless access with much higher data rates than today Anytime, Anywhere Collection of technologies and protocols
Not just one single standard Seamless handover and roaming QoS support

Prediction of availability is 2015 (ref:Phil Redman, Gartner)

Tor K Moseng, Handoff in Wireless Internet Access

25 Visions

Visions
The Wireless World Research Forum (WWRF) formulates visions on strategic future research directions in the wireless field
Networks for the Wireless World must enable application- and service-independent end-to-end reachability in the global network environment.

Networks for the Wireless World should be capable to support both existing and new mobility mechanisms that enable terminals and networks to move around without being closely tied to so-called home networks.

Tor K Moseng, Handoff in Wireless Internet Access

26 References

References

3GPP, [Online]: www.3gpp.org Jacques De Kegel, IBM & Wireless 2004, Presentation WIreless e-business EBO, [Online]: http://www.ti.kviv.be/Ittelecom/EBO_overview.pdf Knut Evensen, CALM Architecture and CALM M5 Convenor, Presentation at IEEE 802 Plenary Tutorials, November 2006 Hussain et al., Mobility Management Challenges and Issues in 4G Heterogeneous Networks, In Proceedings of InterSense'06, May 2006 IEEE, [Online]: www.ieee.org IETF, [Online]: www.ietf.org Juha Korhonen, Introduction to 3G Mobile Communications, 2nd Ed, Artech House, 2003 Lim et al., SHARE: Seamless Handover Architecture for 3G-WLAN Roaming Environment, Wireless Networks, 15:353-363, 2009 Network World, [Online]: www.networkworld.com Charles Perkins, Presentation at an IEEE 802 Handoff Tutorial, November 2002, [Online]: http://ieee802.org/16/tutorial/T80216-02_04.zip Bjrn Rnning, UMTS og WLAN - konkurrerende eller komplimentre systemer, Norsk UMTS-forum, Oktober 2001, [Online]: http://www.umts.no/files/30Okt01-Bj%C3%B8rnR%C3%B8nning-%20UMTS%20forum.pdf Sharma et al., OmniCon: A Mobile IP-based Vertical Handoff System for Wireless LAN and GPRS Links, In Proceedings of ICPP 2004 Workshops, 2004 UMA Today, [Online]: www.umatoday.com Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, [Online]: http://en.wikipedia.org Wireless World Research Forum, [Online]: http://www.wireless-world-research.org/ Qing-An Zeng and D.P.Agrawal, Handoff in Wireless Mobile Networks, Chapter 1, Handbook of Wireless Networks and Mobile Computing, 2002

Tor K Moseng, Handoff in Wireless Internet Access