Performance analysis of path rerouting algorithms for handoff control in mobile ATM networks

This paper studies the effects of user mobility and handoff path rerouting on the traffic distributions in a mobile network environment. In mobile ATM networks, extra traffic load may be added to network links due to user mob ility and handoff path rerouting. This requires higher network link capacit y and possible topology reengineering in order to support the same quality of service (QoS) for mobile services. To capture the dynamic variations in mobile ATM networks, we propose to use a flow model. The model represents t he mobile-generated traffic as a set of stochastic flows over a set of orig in-destination (OD) pairs. The user mobility is defined by transfer probabi lities of the flows and the handoff path rerouting algorithm is modeled by a transformation between the routing functions for traffic flows. The analy sis shows that user mobility may cause temporal variations as well as smoot hing effects on the network traffic. Using the flow network model, typical handoff path rerouting algorithms are evaluated through both analytical and experimental approaches. The evaluation methodology can be used for either redesigning the network topology for a given path rerouting algorithm or s electing a path rerouting algorithm for a given network topology under a sp ecific mobile service scenario.