Adama Science and Technology University

School of Electrical Engineering and Computing

Department of CSE

Wireless Mobile Networks

(CSE5309-Major Elective Course)

Chapter 3: Cellular Network and Mobility Management

 Introduction to Cellular Concept
• Traditional mobile service was structured in a fashion similar to television broadcasting: One very
powerful transmitter.
• Television broadcasting: One very powerful transmitter located at the highest spot in an area would
broadcast in a radius of up to 50 kilometers.
• Drawbacks:
» High power consumption
» Large size of the mobile
» Low capacity
▪ The Cellular concept is a system level idea which calls for replacing a single high power transmitter with
many low power transmitters.
• Each providing coverage to only small portion of the service area.

2
 Frequency Reuse
▪ Cellular radio systems rely on an intelligent allocation and reuse of channels throughout a coverage
region.
• Each cellular base station is allocated a group of radio channels to be used within a small geographic area
called a cell.
• Base stations in adjacent cells are assigned channel groups which contain completely different channels
than neighboring cells.
• By limiting the coverage area to within the boundaries of a cell, the same group of channels may be used
to cover different cells that are separated from one another by distances large enough to keep interference
levels within tolerable limits.
• The design process of selecting and allocating channel groups for all of the cellular base stations within a
system is called frequency reuse or frequency planning.

3
 Frequency Reuse…

4
 Frequency reuse concept…
• Consider a cellular system which has a total of S duplex channels.
• Each cell is allocated a group of k channels, .
• The S channels are divided among N cells.
• The total number of available radio channels
S= kN
• The N cells which use the complete set of channels is called cluster.
• The cluster can be repeated M times within the system. The total number of channels, C, is used as a
measure of capacity
C= MkN = MS
• The capacity is directly proportional to the number of replication M.
• The cluster size, N, is typically equal to 3, 4, 7, or 12.
• Small N is desirable to maximize capacity.
5
Interference

▪ Interference is a major limiting factor in the performance of cellular radio system

➢ Sources of Interference
• Another mobile in the same cell
• A call in progress in a neighboring cell
• Other base stations operating in the same frequency band or
• Any noncellular system which inadvertently leaks energy into the cellular frequency band
• The two major types of system-generated interferences are
1. Co-channel interference
2. Adjacent channel interference

6
 Co-channel & Adjacent channel Interference

7
 Co-channel Interference

• CCI in a cell occurs due to the other cells that uses same frequency set of the cell.

• These cells using the same frequency set are called co-channel cell.

• The techniques to resolve the CCI

• Interference Reconstruction Technique (IRT)

• Equalization Techniques (ET)

• Design a Directional antenna

8
 Adjacent Channel Interference
▪ It is Interference resulting from signals which are adjacent in frequency to desired signal.
• This results from imperfect receiver filters which allow nearby frequencies to leak into the
pass band.
How can adjacent channel interference be reduced?
• Careful filtering and channel assignment
• By keeping the frequency separation between each channel in a given cell as large as
possible
• By sequentially assigning successive channels in the frequency band to different cells

9
 Power Control For Reducing Interference
• In practical cellular radio and personal communication systems the power levels transmitted by every
subscriber unit are controlled by the serving base stations
Need for Power Control:
• Received power must be sufficiently above the background noise for effective communication
• Desirable to minimize power in the transmitted signal from the mobile. Reduce co-channel interference,
alleviate health concerns, save battery power
• In Spread Spectrum systems using CDMA, it’s desirable to equalize the received power level from all
mobile units at the Base station.

10
 Improving Capacity in Cellular Systems
▪ Cost of a cellular network is proportional to the number of Base Stations. The
income is proportional to the number of users.
▪ Techniques to provide more channels per coverage area is by
▪ Cell Splitting : It allows an orderly growth of the cellular system
▪ Sectoring : It uses Directional antennas to control the interference and
frequency reuse of channels.
▪ Zone Microcell: It distributes the coverage of the Cell.
▪ More bandwidth
▪ Borrow channel from nearby cells

11
 Cell Splitting
▪ Cell Splitting is the process of subdividing the congested cell into smaller cells (microcells),Each with its
own base station and a corresponding reduction in antenna height and transmitter power.

▪ Cell Splitting increases the capacity since it increases the number of times the channels are reused.

▪ Cell Splitting allows the system to grow by replacing large cells with smaller cells without changing the
co-channel re-use ratio Q.
▪ The increased number of cells would increase the number of clusters over the coverage region, which in
turn increase the number of channels, and thus capacity in the coverage area

12
 Cell Sectoring

❖ The co-channel interference in a cellular system can be decreased by replacing the

omnidirectional antenna at the base station by several directional antennas, each radiating
within a specified sector.
• The process of reducing the co-channel interference and thus increasing the capacity of the
system by using directional antennas is known as Sectoring.
• In general a cell is partitioned into three 120 degree sectors or six 60 degree sectors.
• When sectoring is employed, the channels used in a particular cell are broken down into
sectored groups and are used only in a particular sector.

13
Cell sectoring …

14
Mobility management in cellular network
▪ Mobility management is one of the major function of a GSM and UMTS network that allows mobile
phone to the network.
▪ It’s main aim to track where the subscribers are allowing calls, MS and other mobile phone service to
be delivered to them.
▪ Mobility management enables the serving networks to locate a mobile subscriber’s point of attachment.
▪ For delivering data packets (i.e. location management), and
▪ maintain a mobile subscriber’s connection as it continues to change its point of attachment (i.e.
handoff management).
▪ This may be concern with
▪ Handoff management and
▪ Location management (Roaming)
15
 Handoff Management
❖ Handoff management is the process by which a mobile node keeps its connection active when it moves
from one access point to another.
❖ The term, handoffs is used when a subscriber wonders in the cells in a local cellular system in cellular
technology.
❖ When a person travels among different cellular systems in many countries or the city then it is called that
he is in roaming.
❖ There are three stages in a handoff process.
➢ First, the initiation of handoff is triggered by either the mobile device, or a network agent, or the
changing network conditions.
➢ The second stage is for a new connection generation, where the network must find new resources for
the handoff connection and perform any additional routing operations.
➢ Finally, data-flow control needs to maintain the delivery of the data from the old connection path to the
new connection path according to the agreed-upon QoS guarantees.
16
 Hand off management…
▪ When mobile user engaged in conversation the MS connected to BS via radio link.
▪ The mobile user move to coverage area of anther BS, the radio link to the old BS eventually
disconnected and the radio link to the new base station should be established to continue the
conversation.
▪ This process is variously referred to as automatic link transfer ,handover or hand off.

17 11/14/2023
Handoff management …
▪ As shown in the above figure we consider three base stations.(BSs) and there coverage areas.
▪ Here MS is a Vehicle traversing in the coverage areas.
▪ The coverage areas are irregular because of the radiation patterns of these base station
antennas, buildings, trees, mountains and other terrain futures.
▪ Here the Ms continue the Conversation about the handoff procedure should be completed
while the MS is in the overlap region.
▪ As the MS moves towards the edge of the BS coverage area the signal strength and quality begin to deteriorate .
▪ At some point signal from New BS stronger than serving Old BS.
▪ So that the signal is necessary to handed over to the new BS from old BS ,before MS becomes unusable.
Otherwise call will lost.

18
 Reasons for a Handoff to be conducted
• To avoid call termination: call drops
• When the capacity for connecting new calls of a given cell is used up.
• Interference in the channels.
• When the user behaviors change.
» Speed and mobility.
The issue for Hand of management
❖ Handoff detection
❖ Channel Assignment
❖ Radio link Transfer

19
 Issue for Hand of management
Handoff detection
❖ Handoff detection is based on link measurement
❖ Signal measurement is used to determine the qualities of the channel
➢ WEI(world error indicator) : Metric that indicate weather the current burst was demodulate
properly in the MS
➢ RSSI( received signal indicator)
➢ QI(quality indicator)
✓ signal to interface and noise Ratio
❖ To make the handoff decision accurately and quickly it is desirable to use both WEI (over a periodic of
time )and RSS (instantaneously)
❖ Unreliable and inefficient handoff procedure will reduce the quality and reliability of the system.
❖ RSS measure are affected by fading
20
 Issue for Hand of Management…

Fading
➢ Fading: time variation of received signal power due to change in transmission medium or path.
➢ Caused by interference from multiple copies of Tx (transmit )signal arriving @ Rx ( receive ) at slightly
different times
➢ Three most important effects:
➢ Rapid changes in signal strengths over small travel distances or short time periods.
➢ Changes in the frequency of signals.
➢ Multiple signals arriving a different times. When added together at the antenna, signals are spread out
in time. This can cause a smearing of the signal and interference between bits that are received.

21
 Issue for Hand of management…
Fading concept can be generalized as the following
❖ Distance dependent fading or path lose:
➢ Occurs when the received signal becomes weaker due to the increasing distance between MS and
BS
❖ Normal fading or Shadow Fading
➢ Occurs when there are physical obstacles(hill, tower and building) between BS and MS which
can decrease the receiver signal strength.
❖ Ray Leigh fading or multipath fading
➢ Occurs when two or more transmission path occurs between MS and BS
➢ Two types of multipath fading
1. Ray Leigh :when obstacles are close to the receiving antenna
2. Time dispersion :when object is far away from receiving antenna It is frequency
dependent
22
 Issue for Hand of management…
Handoff Decision
❖ When should a MS switch its connection from the current BS to a new BS?
❖ Handoff Decision should be depends on distance based fading and some extent of shadow fading but
independent of Rayleigh fading.
❖ These can be achieved by averaging the receiver signal strength for sufficient time period,
❖ If the MS persists with the current BS for too long, its connection could be broken
✓ Important for voice calls
✓ How about data?
❖ If the MS persists with the current BS for too long and keeps increasing its transmit power, it could
increase co-channel interference or intra-cell/inter-cell interference
❖ If the MS switches its connection too soon, it may not be the right decision and it may have to change it
–increased signaling load
❖ Ideally, there must be EXACTLY one handoff at the cell edge.
23
 Issue for Hand of management…
❖ As MS moves away from the one base satiation to words to other, the signals received from the first
BS become weaker and from the second BS become stronger.
❖ This slow effect is often masked by the multipath Rayleigh fading and the long normal shadow
fading.
❖ Short term Rayleigh fading is handled in mobile system designs by :
❑ frequency hopping and multiple receivers
❑ Signal processing technique such as bit interleaving, equalizers.
❖ Long term channel fading is compensated by increasing transmitter power and the co-channel reuse
distance.

24
 Quiz 1

1. Reason out why receiver signal strength always grater than sender signal strength?
2. What are the main difference between wireless network and cellular network?
3. Assume MR x are traveling from USA to Ethiopia due to this he was lose connection completely
for the time being justify your answer which handoff technique may solve mr x problems?
4. Justify How decision make before link transfer conducted for mr x
5.Clearly list methods that used to reduce CCI interference ?

25
 Strategies for Handoff Detection

➢Mobile Controlled Hand off(MCHO)

➢Network Controlled Handoff(NCHO)
➢Mobile assisted Hand off(MAHO)

26
 Mobile Controlled Hand off(MCHO)
▪ The Mobile station controlled the signal of surrounding BS and interference levels on all channels then
initiate the handoff process when some criteria's are met.
▪ Each MS is completely in control of the handoff process and the MH is responsible for initiating a
handover.
▪ If the signal strength of the serving BS is lower than that of another BS by a certain threshold, then handoff
can be initiated.
▪ It does this by evaluating the signal strength and traffic load conditions and detecting the presence of
neighboring BSs.
▪ When a MH decides to initiate a handover, it sends an explicit message to a mobility management node
residing in the network.
▪ This type of handoff has a short reaction time (on the order of 0.1 second).
▪ Popular for lower tier radio systems.
▪ It Used in DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications ) and PACS (Personal Access
27 Communications System )
 MCHO…
There are two common handoffs:
1. Automatic link transfer (ALT)
➢ Transfer between two base stations
➢ Requires the MS to make quality measurements of current and candidate channels in
surrounding BS.
2.Time slot transfer
➢ Transfer between channels of a single BS
➢ The MS’S handoff control between channels on the same BS is made possible by passing
uplink quality information in the form of word –error indicator ,back to the MS on Downlink.
➢ The MS obtains RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator ) and QI process information
as part of modulation.

28
 Network Controlled Handoff(NCHO)
❖ The network controlled handoff scheme a signal strength monitor object, running in a wireless
access point, continuously measures the signal strength of a mobile device.
❖ The surrounding BS measure the signal for MS the network initiates the handoff process when
some handoff criteria's are met.
❖ handoff decisions are based on the measurements of the MSs at a number of BSs and these
decisions are made by the network.
❖ Connection rerouting is performed by the network and network collects statistics related to signal
strength, traffic load, and other information to decide when to initiate a handover and which new BS
is the target.
❖ Used in CT-2 ( Digital FDMA System ) plus and AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System)

29
 NCHO…

▪ Network uses multiple (current and surrounding) BSs to supervise quality of all current
connections by making measurements of RSSI.
▪ MSC will command surrounding BSs to occasionally make measurements of these links.
▪ MSC makes the decision when and where to effect the handoff
▪ Heavy network signaling traffic and limited radio resource at BSs prevent frequency
measurements of neighbouring links=> long Handoff times (>10s)

30
 Mobile Assisted Handoff(MAHO)
❖ In this strategy the network makes decisions and the MS makes measurements.
❖ It is a process used in GSM cellular networks where a mobile phone assists/helps the cellular base
station to transfer a call to another base station
❖ It is a technique used in mobile telecom to transfer a mobile phone to a new radio channel with stronger
signal strength and improved channel quality.
❖ The network asks the mobile station to measure the signal from surrounding BSs.
❖ The network makes the handoff decision based on report from the MS.
❖ Handoff process is more decentralized.
❖ Used in GSM in IS-95 CDMA

31
 Types of handover

▪ They are categorized as Hard handoff and Soft handoff

Soft handoff(“Make-before Break "Handoff)
▪ It is a mobile cellular network technology commonly used in CDMA (Code-division multiple
access) systems that enables the overlapping of the repeater coverage zones,
▪ So that every mobile station is always well within range of at least one of the base stations.
▪ Soft handoff mechanism works by first switching and establishing connection with another
base station before disconnecting from the existing base station in the network.
▪ There is no change in frequency or timing as a mobile set passes from one base station to
another base station,

32
▪
 Cont’d

❖ so there are practically no dead zones therefore the connections face negligible interruption and the
dead zones are practically non existent.
❖ If compared to hard handover, Soft handover offers more reliable access continuity in network
connection and less chances of a call termination during switching of base stations.
❖ This is due to it inherent attribute to handle simultaneous frequency channels which rarely suffer from
fading or interference at the same time and together.
❖ In soft handoff technology, the connections are relatively permanent and the communication is more
stable in comparison to the other cellular technologies because in CDMA technology, all the repeaters
use the same frequency channel for each mobile set, irrespective of the location.

33
 Soft handoff procedure

Suppose that the mobile station is linked and communicating with base station 1:
❖ Every base station is sending a pilot signal, which among other things, gives a measure of the signal
strength to mobile users.
❖ When the signal strength of base station 2 exceeds the add threshold, base station 1 is notified to
place base station 2 onto the candidate list.
❖ Further, when the signal strength of base station 2 becomes greater than that of base station 1 by
some specified level, Base station 2 is placed on the active list and it also is allowed control of the
call.
❖ Now upon the signal level of base station 1 going below the drop threshold, the drop timer is
activated.

34
 Soft handoff procedure…
❖ If it happens now that the signal level of base station 1 goes back above the drop level, the drop timer
will be reset.
❖ However, if the signal strength level goes below the drop threshold and the drop timer expires; base
station1 is dropped from activity with the call.

35
 Cont’d….

Hard hand off(“break before make” )

❖ In hard handoff, the link to the prior base station is terminated before or as the user is transferred to the
new cell’s base station.
❖ This means that the mobile station is linked to no more than one base station at a given time.
❖ Under the control of the MSC, the BS hands off the MS’s call to another cell and then drop the call.
❖ Initiation of the handoff may begin when the signal strength at the mobile received from base station 2 is
greater than that of base station 1.
❖ The signal strength measures are really signal levels averaged over a chosen amount of time.

36
 Cont’d..
❖ This averaging is necessary because of the Rayleigh fading nature of the environment in which the
cellular network resides.
❖ A major problem with this approach to handoff decision is that the received signals of both base
stations often fluctuate.
❖ Hard handoff is primarily used in FDMA (frequency division multiple access) and TDMA (time
division multiple access), in which different frequency ranges are used in adjacent channels in order
to minimize channel interference.
❖ So it becomes impossible to communicate with both BSs when the MS moves from one BS to
another BS (since different frequencies are used).
❖ A disadvantage of hard handover is that if a handover fails the call may be temporarily disrupted or
even terminated abnormally.

37
 Types of handover ….
Inter-BS handoff(inter- cell)

38
Inter-BS handoff…

▪ The new and old BSs are connected to the same MSC. Assume that MCHO is adopted here.
▪ When the need of handoff detected by MS :
Step 1.The MS momentarily suspends conversation and initiates the handoff procedure by signaling on
an idle channel in the new BS. Then it resumes the conversation on the old BS.
Step 2.Upon receipt of the signal, the MSC transfers the encryption information to the selected idle
channel of the new BS and sets up the new conversation path to the MS through that channel. The switch
bridges the new path with the old path and informs the MS to transfer from the old channel to the new
channel.
Step 3.After the MS has been transferred to the new BS, it signals the network, and resumes
conversation using the new channel.

39
 Inter BS handoff…

Step 4.Upon receipt of the handoff completion signal, the network removes the bridge from the path
and releases resources associated with the old channel.
▪ This handoff procedure used with mobile control handoff strategies (MCHS)
▪ For the network controlled handoff strategy ,all handoff signaling messages are exchanged between
MS and the old BS through the failing link
▪ The whole process must be completed as quickly as possible ,to ensure that the new is established
before the old link fails.
▪ This handoff reduce the probabilities of force termination and call incompletion(new call blocking
pulse handoff call forced termination)

40
 Inter-BS handoff…

❖ If the new BS does not have an idle channel, the handoff call may be dropped (forced to terminate).
❖ Forced termination of an ongoing call is considered less desirable than blocking a new call attempt.
❖ In most PCS handoff handling method if no channel is available the handoff is blocked the call is held
on current channel in the old cell until call is completed when fail link is no longer available .
❖ This method referred to as non prioritized scheme
❖ The main purpose of inter-BS handover is to maintain the call as the subscriber is moving out of the
area covered by the source cell and entering the area of the target cell.

41
 Intersystem Handoff(inter -MSC)
❖ In intersystem handoff, the new and old BSs are connected to two different MSCs.

42
 Cont’d..

Step 1.
➢ Part I.MSC A requests MSC B to perform handoff measurements on the call in progress.
➢ Part II.MSC then selects a candidate BS “BS 2”, and interrogates BS 2 for signal quality parameters.
➢ Part III.MSC B returns the signal quality parameters, along with other relevant information, to MSC A.
Step 2.
➢ Part I.MSC A checks if the MS has made too many handoffs recently (e.g., to avoid that MS is
moving within overlapped area) or if intersystem trunks are not available.
➢ Part II. If so, MSC A exits the procedure.
➢ Part III. Otherwise, MSC A asks MSC B to set up a voice channel.

43
 Cont’d..

Step 3.
➢ Part I.MSC A sends the MS a handoff order.
➢ Part II. The MS synchronizes to BS 2.
➢ Part III. After the MS is connected to BS 2, MSC B informs MSC A that the handoff is successful.
➢ Part IV.MSC A then connects the call path (trunk) to MSC B.
❖ MSC A is referred to as the anchor MSC, and is always in the call path before and after the handoff.

44
 Channel Assignment Schemes for Handoff Calls

To reduce force termination and promote call completion channel assignment scheme have ben proposed.
1. Non prioritized Scheme.
➢ The networks handle a handoff in the same manner as a new call attempt.
2. Reserved Channel Scheme.
➢ Similar to the non prioritized scheme, except that some channels in each BS are reserved for
handoff calls.
3. Queuing Priority Scheme.
➢ There is a considerable area where a call can be handled by either BS, which is called the
handoff area.
➢ If no new channel is available in the new BS during handoff, the new BS buffers the handoff
request in a waiting queue.
➢ The MS continues to use the channel with the old BS until either a channel in the new BS becomes
45 available.
 Cont’d…

4. Sub rating Scheme.

❖ The new BS creates a new channel for a handoff call by sharing resources with an exiting call if no
free channel is available.
❖ Sub rating means an occupied full-rate channel is temporarily divided into two channels at half the
original rate.
❖ One half-rate channel is to serve the exiting call, and the other half-rate channel is to serve the
handoff request.
❖ When occupied channels are released, the sub rated channels are immediately switched back to full
rate channels.

46
 Summery of handoff

47 11/14/2023
 Wireless Mobile Networks(CSE5309)

Chapter Three part 2 Roaming management

 2. Roaming Management
❖ RM Ensure that a mobile phone remains connected to a mobile network while the subscriber is abroad,
or outside of the geographical coverage area of the home country network.
❖ When user move from one PCS system the system should be informed of the current location of the
user to deliver the service to the mobile user.
❖ Roaming means when our phones receives phone signal whenever we are outside of our cell phone
carriers operation area.
❖ Roaming charge may apply when we travel and leave home network area and roam onto the network
or coverage area of another provider.
❖ support mobility management protocol such as EIA /TIA , Interim standard (IS-41 )or ANSI 41 ,Global
system for mobile (GSM), mobile application part (MAP) have been defined for PCS networks.

49
 Cont’d….

❖ The Two basic operations in roaming management are:

➢ Registration (or Location Update):the process whereby a MS informs the system of its
current location.
➢ Location Tracking: The process during which the system locates the MS (this process is
required when the network attempts to deliver a call to the mobile user)
❖ The roaming management schemes proposed in IS-41 and GSM and MAP are two-level strategies
❖ They use a two-tier system of home and visited databases that are
➢ Home Location Register (HLR), and
➢ Visited Location Register (VLR).

50
 Home Location Register (HLR)
▪ This database contains all the administrative information about each subscriber along with their last
known location.
▪ In this way, the GSM network is able to route calls to the relevant base station for the MS.
▪ When a user subscribes to the services of a PCS network, a record is created in the system’s database,
which is referred as to the home system of the mobile user.
▪ HLR is a network database that stores and manages all subscriptions of a specific operator.
▪ The information contained in HLR includes
➢ MS Identity,
➢ directory number,
➢ profile information,
➢ current location,
➢ validation period.
51
 Visitor Location Register (VLR)
▪ This contains selected information from the HLR that enables the selected services for the individual
subscriber to be provided.
▪ The VLR can be implemented as a separate entity, but it is commonly realized as an integral part of
the MSC, rather than a separate entity.
▪ When the mobile user visits a PCS network other than the home system, a temporary record for the
mobile user is created in the visitor location register (VLR) of the visited system.
▪ The VLR temporarily stores subscription information for the visiting subscribers.
▪ Thus, the MSC (corresponding with the VLR) can provide service to the mobile user.
▪ The VLR is the “other” location register used to retrieve information for handling calls to/from a
visiting mobile user.

52
 MS Registration Process

53
 Cont’d…
Step 1.
❖ Suppose that the home system of a mobile user is in Morristown. When the mobile user moves from
one visited system (e.g., New York City) to another (e.g., Los Angeles), it must register in the VLR of
the new visited system.
Step 2.
❖ Part I. The new VLR informs the mobile user’s HLR of the person’s current location-the address of the
new VLR.
❖ Part II. The HLR sends an acknowledgement, which includes the MS’s profile, to the new VLR.
Step 3.
❖ The new VLR informs the MS of the successful registration.
Step 4.
❖ After Step 2, the HLR also sends a deregistration message to cancel the obsolete location record of
the MS in the old VLR.
❖ The old VLR acknowledges the deregistration.
54
 Call Origination(delivery) Procedure

❖ To originate a call, the MS executes the following steps.

Step 1.MS contacts the MSC in the visited PCS (Personal Communications Services) network.
Step 2.The call request is forwarded to the VLR (visitor location register ) for approval
Step 3.If the call is accepted, the MSC sets up the call to the called party following the standard
PSTN call setup procedure.

55
 Call Delivery (Call Termination/Location Tracking)

56
 Cont’d…

Step 1.
➢ Part I. If a wireline phone attempts to call a mobile subscriber, the call is forwarded to a switch, called
the originating switching the PSTN.
➢ Part II. The originating switch queries the HLR to find the current VLR of the MS.
➢ Part III. The HLR queries the VLR in the which the MS resides to get a routable address.
➢ Note that if the originating switch is not capable of querying the HLR (i.e., it is not equipped to support
mobility), the call is routed through the PSTN to the subscriber’s Gateway MSC, which queries the
HLR to determine the current VLR serving the MS.
Step 2.The VLR returns the routable address to the originating switch through HLR.
Step 3.Based on the routable address, a trunk (voice circuit) is set up from the originating switch to the
MS through the visited MSC.

57
 Roaming Management under SS7

❖ Mobile roaming managed by the PSTN signaling through SS7 ( signaling system )
❖ SS7 is developed to satisfy the telephone operating companies’ requirement for an improvement to
the earlier signaling systems, which is lacked the sophistication required to deliver mush more than
plain old telephone service(POTS).
❖ Signaling between a PCS network and the PSTN are typically achieved by the SS7 network.

58
Distinct Components of SS7
Service Switching Point (SSP)
➢ A telephone switch interconnected by SS7 links.
➢ The SSPs perform call processing on calls that originate, tandem, or terminate at
that nodes.
➢ A Local SSP in the PSTN can be central or end office (EO).
➢ An SSP in a PCS network is called a mobile switching center (MSC).

60 11/14/2023
 Cont’d…
Signal Transfer Point (STP)
➢ A switch that reply SS7 message between network switched and databases.
➢ Based on the address fields of the SS7 messages, the STPs route the message to the correct
out-going signal links.
➢ For the reliability requirements, STPs are provisioned in mated pairs.
Service Control Point (SCP)
➢ SCP contains data bases for providing enhanced services.
➢ An SCP accepts queries from an SSP and returns the requested information to the SSP.
➢ In mobile applications, an SCP may contains an HLR or VLR.
➢ In SS7 network, the trunks (voice circuits) connects SSPs to carry user data/voice information.
❖ The signaling links connects SCPs to STPs, and STPs to SSPs.
❖ The SSPs and SCPs are connected indirectly through STPs.
61
Registration through SS7
❖ Example: the MS moves from VLR1 to VLR2.
Step 1
➢ The MS enters the area controlled by MSC2.
➢ MSC 2 lunches a registration query to its VLR through STP2, assuming that VLR2 and MSC2 are
not co-located.
Step 2
➢ VLR2 sends a registration message to the MS’s HLR (HLR4)
➢ VLR2 may not know the actual address of HLR. Instead, VLR2 sends the message to containing the
MS identity, called Mobile Identification Number(MIN), to an STP (STP3) that can translate the MIN
into the HLR address.
Step 3
➢ The MIN-to-HLR address translation is performed at STP3 by a table-lookup technique called
Global Title Translation(GTT). STP3 the forwards the registration message to HLR
62
Cont’d…
Step 4
➢ After the registration, HLR sends an acknowledgement back to VLR2. Since the address of VLR2 is
known, the acknowledgement may be sent to VLR2 using a shortcut, without passing through STP3.
Step 5
➢ After Step 3, HLR sends a deregistration message to VLR1 to cancel the obsolete record. VLR1 then
acknowledges the cancellation.

63
 Reducing the “Cost "of Deregistration

❖ Approach 1: Implicit Deregistration

➢ Obsolete VLR records are deleted until the database is full.
➢ If the database if full when an MS arrives, a record is deleted, freeing storage space to
accommodate the newly arrived MS.
➢ A replacement policy is required to select a record for replacement. (Note that a valid record is
replaced, and the information is lost).
❖ Advantage
➢ No deregistration message are sent among the SS7 network elements.

64
 Cont’d….

❖ Approach 2: Periodic Re-registration .

➢ The MS periodically re-registers to the VLR.
➢ If the VLR does not receive the re-registration message within a timeout period, the record is
deleted
❖ Advantage
➢ This approach only creates local message traffic between the MSC and the VLR.
➢ No SS7 messages are generated if the VLR is co-located with the MSC.

65
 Reducing the Registration Traffic–Pointer Forwarding Scheme

❖ Move Operation (registration)

➢ When an MS moves from one VLR to another, a pointer is created from the old VLR to
the new VLR.
➢ No registration to the HLR is required.
❖ Find Operation (call delivery)
➢ When the HLR attempts to locate the MS for call delivery, the pointer chain is traced.
➢ After the find operation, the HLR points directly to the destination VLR.

66
 Cont’d…

figure. Pointer forwarding scheme

67
 Cont’d…
Call Delivery through SS7
❖ Similar to the registration process, visited to several STPs, and a GTT maybe required to access
the HLR in call delivery
❖ Several STPs may be visited to obtain the routable address from the VLR.
❖ To reduce the call delivery traffic, a cache scheme was proposed.

68 figure .Call delivery through SS7

 Cont’d….

Cache Scheme
❖ The possible positions for the cache,
➢ Method 1:The cache is maintained in the originating SSPs.
➢ Method 2: The cache is maintained in the STP that performs GTTs.
❖ A cache entry consists of two fields:
➢ The MIN of an MS
➢ The current visited VLR of the MS
❖ The cache contains entries for MSs recently accessed from the SSP.

69
 Cont’d…

70 Figure Cache scheme

 Cont’d….

❖ When the calling party originates a call to an MS, the SSP first checks if the cache entry for
the MS exists. Three possibilities are
➢ Case 1: The cache entry does not exists
✓ The call delivery is processed following the normal procedure
➢ Case 2: The cache entry exists and is current
✓ The VLR is directly accessed.
➢ Case 3: The cache entry exists but is obsolete
✓ Then procedure detects that the cache entry is obsolete if the queried VLR’s
response is negative. The normal procedure is executed.

71
 of Chapter Thr
nd e

e
Thank You for Your
Attention

73