State Machine for GPRS MM

GPRS Attach IDLE GPRS Detach, RAU Reject or GPRS Attach Reject READY PDU transmission READY timer expiry or Force to STANDBY STANDBY

(a) MS MM States for GPRS

GPRS Attach IDLE GPRS Detach, RAU Reject, GPRS Attach Reject or Cancel Location READY PDU reception READY timer expiry, Force to STANDBY, or Abnormal RLC Condition STANDBY

GPRS Detach, Implicit Detach, or Cancel Location

(b) SGSN MM States for GPRS

In READY state, the MS is tracked by

the SGSN at the cell level.

In STANDBY state, the MS is tracked by

the SGSN at the RA level.
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Location Update vs. Paging

Transitions between cell and RA trackings determine the location update and paging signaling costs.
Cell Tracking
SGSN Low paging cost High location update cost

RA Tracking
SGSN
High paging cost Location update Low location update cost
RA changed

Location update

Cell changed

RA

READY Timer Mechanism

3GPP TS 23.060 proposed the READY Timer (RT)
approach, where an RT threshold T is defined.
tp t1 t0
... ... Ready timer T expiration

t2

t3

t4

.....

ti

ti+1

ti+2

ti+3

ti+4

ti+5

....

tNc time t1

the end of the previous packet transmission

Cell Updates

RA Updates

the beginning of the next packet transmission

Drawbacks of the RT approach

The RT approach has a major fallacy that the RT

timers in both the MS and the SGSN are independent and thus may lose synchronization. When the MS mobility rate changes from time to time, the RT timer can not adapt to the change.
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READY Counter Mechanism

To resolve the drawbacks of the RT approach,
we propose the READY Counter (RC) approach.
tm,1 tm,2 t0
... ... Threshold K K Cell Updates Nu-K RA Updates

tm,3

tm,4

.....

tp tm,K tm,K+1 tm,K+2 tm,K+3 tm,K+4 tm,K+5

....

tm,Nc time t1

the end of the previous packet transmission

the beginning of the next packet transmission

In the RC approach, an RC counter counts the

number of cell movements in the packet idle period.

If the number of movements reaches a threshold

K, then the MS is switched from cell tracking to RA tracking.
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Comparison of RC and RT (1)

Mix two types of user mobility patterns
Type I pattern: mobility rate m = 1/500min Type II pattern: mobility rate m = 1/5min

Consider 1,000,000 packet idle periods

with mean 100min, in which
Type I pattern is exercised with probability 0.5, and Type II pattern is exercised with probability 0.5.

Let the expected signaling cost of

location update and paging in a packet idle period be

CT for Type I pattern, and CT for Type II pattern.
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Comparison of RC and RT (2)

In RC (E[tp] = 100min, E[tm] = 500min, E[tm] = 5min)
the lowest CT is expected when K 2 the lowest CT is expected when K = 0 good performance can be expected when K = 1 or 2

In RT (E[tp] = 100min, E[tm] = 500min, E[tm] = 5min)

the best threshold value for CT occurs when T > 100min the best threshold value for CT occurs when T < 5min no T value will satisfy both patterns

Optimal Threshold K Calculation

tp 1 t0
...

.....

i-1 i

i+1

i+2

i+3

i+4

....

Nc time t1

the end of the previous packet transmission

RA Crossings

the beginning of the next packet transmission

The net cost in tp includes location update cost

during tp and paging cost (if needed) on t1.

Proof for Theorem 1

tp 1 t0 the end of the previous packet transmission
RA Crossings

.....

i-1 i

i+1

i+2

i+3

i+4

....
...

Nc time t1

the beginning of the next packet transmission

If K > Nc, CT(K) = CT(Nc+1) = = CT() = UNc If K Nc, CT(K) = U[K+Nr(K)]+SV

Nr(0) - Nr(K) K Nr(0) K + Nr(K) CT(K) = U[K+Nr(K)]+SV U[0+ Nr(0)] + SV = CT(0)

K* = 0 or K* = Nc+1.
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Dynamic READY Counter (DRC) Algorithm

tp(1) tp(2) tp(3)

K(1) K(2) K(3)

tp(4)
K(4)

.....

tp(i-3) tp(i-2) tp(i-1) tp(i) tp(i+1) tp(i+2)

K(i-3) K(i-2) K(i-1) K

....

time

Average of the previous M optimal K values

Performance of DRC
Case 1 (randomness): consider 1,000,000 periods,
mean 9 cell crossings in a packet idle period with prob. 0.5
mean 20 cell crossings with prob. 0.5

Case 2 (locality):
mean 9 cell crossings for the first 500,000 periods
mean 20 cell crossings for the last 500,000 periods Case 1

Case 2

(RA size = 37 cells; 1 location update cost : 1 paging cost = 4:1)

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Summary
We proposed READY Counter (RC) to
resolve the fallacies of READY Timer (RT).

We devised an adaptive algorithm

dynamic RC (DRC) to reduce the net cost of location update and paging.

We proposed analytic and simulation

models to investigate RT, RC and DRC.

We provided numerical examples to show

how to select appropriate operation parameters.
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