User agent migration policies in wireless networks

Wireless networks often employ network-based user agents as proxies for mob ile users, In this paper, we consider the fundamental problem of designing migration policies for these user agents. We first introduce a general fram ework for analyzing user agent migration policies, and then highlight, thro ugh analysis and simulation, the numerous parameters and tradeoffs that dic tate the design of migration policies. We evaluate these policies in the co ntext of both homogeneous and heterogeneous networks, and in the presence a nd absence of processing overheads due to migration. Finally, we identify t wo simple threshold-based policies that deliver very good performance over a wide range of system parameters and configurations. To our knowledge, thi s is the first paper to propose and evaluate policies for migration of user agents.