Delay analysis of context aware mobility management systems addressing multiple connectivity opportunities

Abstract

The support of context aware Vertical Handover Operations (VHO) for optimally exploiting multiple connectivity opportunities is addressed by considering a typical generic architecture, reminiscent of relevant frameworks, such as IEEE 802.21. The paper develops a novel modeling methodology that can capture concisely, but also effectively, all important factors that have an impact on the system’s performance, including the intensity of handover requests, network topological and availability characteristics, various sources of signaling overhead and the congestion points imposed by the architectural components. The model is validated by simulation and is employed for investigating the impact of the various parameters on the mean delay required for the VHO preparation phase. The principles of the proposed modeling methodology could be exploited for the future study of additional more decentralized solutions, towards addressing distributed mobility management scenarios, including ad-hoc and mesh network topologies.