Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION

Mobile WiMAX (IEEE 802.16e) is a fast growing broadband access technology that enables low-cost mobile Internet applications, and realizes the convergence of mobile and fixed broadband access in single air interface and network architecture. It was developed by WiMAX Forum and IEEE 802.16 Working Group. While the initial versions of IEEE 802.16 / a /d focused on fixed applications, the latest version IEEE 802.16e (Mobile WiMAX) include many new features and functionalities needed. Fig.1 depicts a Mobile WiMAX environment.

Fig. 1 Mobile WiMAX network overlay The features of Mobile WiMAX include OFDMA, scalable bandwidth in downlink and uplink, beam forming, space-time coding and spatial multiplexing (SM). It has an adaptive physical layer design using fast time and frequency scheduling schemes. The AllIP flat network architecture of Mobile Wimax supports different deployment models and enables, both the traditional operator-managed as well as new open Internet services.

In cellular telecommunications, the term handoff refers to the process of transferring an ongoing call or data session from one channel connected to the core network to another. In telecommunications there may be different reasons why a handoff (handover) might be conducted: 1. when the mobile unit is moving away from one cell to another cell. 2.when the capacity for connecting new calls of a given cell is used up, then an existing or new call from a mobile unit which is located in the cell overlapped region is transferred to next cell in order to free-up some capacity in the first cell for other users, who can only be connected to that cell. 3. In non- CDMA networks, when the channel used by the mobile unit is interfered by another mobile unit using the same channel in a different cell, then the call is transferred to a different channel in the same cell or to another cell in order to avoid the interference. 4. When the user behavior changes. 5. In CDMA networks, to eliminate the near-far effect handoffs are introduced. The handoffs are of different types, they are 1. Intracellular handoff which is between two base stations of same cell. 2. Intercellular handoff which is between two base stations of different cell. 3. Homogeneous handoff takes place between two base stations of same radio access technology. 4. Heterogeneous handoff takes place between two base stations of different radio access technology. Depending on the technique used, handoff can be categorized into hard handoff and soft handoff. The hard handoff is referred as break before make (i.e.) the connectivity with old base station is aborted during handoff and the soft handoff is referred as make before break (i.e.) the connectivity with old base station is maintained during handoff. To perform a handoff different metrics are considered. They are received signal strength, signal to noise ratio, carrier to signal ratio, bit error rate, block error rate and the distance between the mobile unit and the BTS. In CDMA systems, 2G and 3G, the most common criterion for requesting a handoff is Ec / Io ratio (i.e.) received pilot energy ratio measured in the pilot channel (CPICH).

1.1 Literature Survey

An overview of Mobile WiMAX technology which provides a high-level knowledge in WiMAX network evolution, baseline network reference model, air interface, basic protocol structure, frame structure and physical channelization is proposed in [8]. In

general, many intradomain mobility management protocols have been proposed. They can be categorized as tunnel-based and hostspecific- routing-based protocols. The tunnelbased protocols usually employ hierarchical mobility architecture or require a mobility gateway to tunnel packets to and from mobile stations. Examples of the tunnel-based intradomain mobility management protocols include, Hierarchical Mobile Internet Protocol (HMIP), Intradomain Mobility Management Protocol (IDMP) [2], Multicastbased mobility [4], and Dynamic HMIP (DHMIP) [10]. The host-specific-routing based protocols, on the other hand, adopt new routing schemes to support intradomain mobility. That is, standard IP routing is not used for intradomain mobility management. Examples of this category include Cellular IP [1], HAWAII [12], Mobilityaware MPLS [9] and FINCH [7]. In addition to intradomain mobility management, fast handoff is another technique to reduce handoff latency and packet loss rate in MIPv4 and MIPv6, respectively. This FMIP [3] has two modes of operation. They are predictive mode and reactive mode. The F-MIP for Mobile WiMAX (IEEE 802.16e) networks can be found in [5] and [6]. This literature survey on mobility management provides an overview of different approaches for handoff mechanism and their influence in the QoS of a network. Hence there is a need to study the effect of different parameters on network behavior during a handoff. This work focuses on the handoff in a Mobile WiMAX environment which supports a vehicular mobility of 120km /hr. In this paper the handoff latency and throughput with respect to different velocities are calculated and the Mobile WiMAX performance is analyzed.

1.2 Organization of the paper

The remainder of the paper is organized as follows: In section II, the basics of Mobile WiMAX networks are discussed. Section III presents the handoff procedure in Mobile WiMAX networks. The simulation and the results for the Mobile WiMAX handoff are explained in the section IV. Section V explains the performance analysis and section VI concludes this work along with the future work.

Chapter 2 MOBIULE WIMAX

2.1 Mobile WiMAX Network Reference Model
The baseline Mobile WiMAX network architecture can be logically represented by a network reference model (NRM), which identifies key functional entities and reference points over which the network interoperability specifications are defined. The Mobile WiMAX NRM differentiates between network access providers (NAPs) and network service providers (NSPs). The NAP is a business entity that provides radio access infrastructure, while the NSP is the business entity that provides IP connectivity and WiMAX services to WiMAX subscribers according to some negotiated service level agreements (SLAs) with one or more NAPs. The network architecture allows one NSP to have a relationship with multiple NAPs in one or different geographical locations. It also enables NAP sharing by multiple NSPs. In some cases the NSP may be the same business entity as the NAP. The Mobile WiMAX NRM, as illustrated in Fig. 2.

Fig. 2 Mobile WiMAX Network Reference model It consists of several logical network entities: mobile station (MS), an access service network (ASN), a connectivity service network (CSN), and their interactions through reference points R1R8. Each MS, ASN, and CSN represents a logical grouping of functions as described in the following:

1) Mobile Station (MS): Generalized user equipment set providing wireless connectivity between a single or multiple hosts and the WiMAX network. 2) Access Service Network (ASN): Represents a complete set of network functions required to provide radio access to the MS. These functions include layer 2 connectivity with the MS according to IEEE 802.16 standards and WiMAX system profile. It provides authentication, authorization & accounting (AAA) messages to the home NSP (HNSP) and relay functionalities for establishing layer 3 connectivity with MS. It also provides radio resource management. 3) Connectivity Service Network (CSN): It provides IP connectivity services to WiMAX subscriber(s). The CSN may further comprise of network elements such as routers, AAA proxy/ servers, home agent, and user databases and interworking gateways or enhanced network servers. Some of the key functions of the CSN are IP address management, AAA proxy or server management, QoS policy refinement and admission control based on user subscription profiles, ASNCSN tunneling support, subscriber billing and interoperation settlement, Inter-CSN tunneling for roaming and support for inter-ASN mobility. 4) Base Station (BS):A logical network entity that primarily consists of the radio related functions of an ASN interfacing with an MS over-the-air link according to MAC and PHY specifications of IEEE 802.16 specifications. Typically multiple BSs may be logically associated with an ASN. Also, a BS may be logically connected to more than one ASN-GW to allow load balancing and redundancy options

2.2 Maintaining the Integrity of the Specifications

The template is used to format your paper and style the text. All margins, column widths, line spaces, and text fonts are prescribed; please do not alter them. You may note peculiarities. For example, the head margin in this template measures proportionately more than is customary. This measurement and others are deliberate, using specifications that anticipate your paper as one part of the entire proceedings, and not as an independent document. Please do not revise any of the current designations.

Chapter 3 HANDOFF PROCEDURE

The Mobile WiMAX supports three types of handoff mechanisms. They are, 1. Hard handoff (HHO) 2. Macro Diversity Handoff (MDHO) 3. Fast Base Station Switching (FBSS) The handoff procedure in Mobile WiMAX network consists of following stages, 1. Network Topology Advertisement 2. MS Neighbourhood Scanning 3. Cell (Re)selection 4. Handover Decision & Initiation 5. Network Entry i. Ranging ii. Re-authorization iii. Re-registration Each stage is provided with its own functions and if any of this is not completed then that cell will be rejected which in turn rejects the target BS. The whole handoff procedure is depicted in Fig 3.

3.1 Network Topology Advertisement

In this stage the whole topology is advertised to all the base stations in the network. It is done through using the neighbour advertisement messages (NBR-ADV). The MOB_NBR-ADV message is sent periodically by the BS to the MS and the intention is to identify the network and to give the MS, information about neighbour BSs for possible handoff or initial network entry.

3.2 Cell (Re)selection

The cell (re)selection is a process with intention to find a potential BS for handoff. The process begins with synchronization to the first BS and downlink (DL)/uplink (UL) parameters (DL-MAP and UL-MAP, DCD, and UCD messages) are acquired. When the air interface parameters are received, the channel measurements can be launched by sending a ranging request message (RNG-REQ). The BS responds with a ranging response message (RNG-RSP).

Fig 3 Initial network entry

3.3 Handoff Decision and Initiation

The actual handoff begins when a decision is made that the MS changes the serving BS. The decision can be made at the MS, the BS, or on the network. The next step is sending a notification message, not obligatory but recommended, by either the MS (MOB_MSHO-REQ) or by the BS (MOB_BSHO-REQ). However, if the notification message is sent, a response (MOB_MSHO-RSP or MOB_MSHO-RSP) is required. In a case when both send notification messages, the notification sent by the MS has a priority over the notification sent by the BS. Both notifications may include one or more possible target BS(s), which have been for example scanned earlier. The handoff decision is confirmed with a MOB_HO-IND message.

3.4 Synchronization with target BS Downlink

After the handoff is initialized the MS synchronizes with target BS's DL and UL transmissions by obtaining the required parameters. After the synchronization of the DL/UL parameters the MS starts the ranging phase. In ranging phase, the MS and the target BS exchange their transmission link properties.

3.5 Network Entry

After getting the ranging response, the basic needs of the MS are requested to the target BS which includes type of modulation/demodulation scheme, data rate etc. Then the reauthorization of MS & key exchange is performed. After this, the MS registers with the target BS, which is intended for agreement of services for example ARQ or CRC capabilities. Now, the MS has (re)-entered the network of the target BS and the service flows can be re-established with proceeding to the normal operation. Finally, the old serving BS can be released.

Chapter 4 SIMULATION AND RESULTS

The goal for simulations is to test the properties of Mobile WiMAX in practice, or at least, less theoretically. Here the simulation is done using Network Simulator version 2. Among NS-2, ns-2.31version is used here since it supports the Mobile WiMAX environment. The Mobile WiMAX physical and data link control layers functionalities are plugged in to ns2.31. The WiMAX Forum [13] and NIST have jointly released the NS-2 [11] MAC+PHY Add-On for WiMAX (IEEE 802.16). The scenario consisted of two BSs (BS0 and BS1) aligned in a way that the coverage areas of two neighbouring BSs had some overlap. There is a MS travelling through the coverage areas of two 802.16e BSs (BS0 and BS1). The MS is communicating with a fixed subscriber (i.e.) sink Node. The fixed node is within the range of two BSs. Hence if the MS is nearer to the BS1 then the communication between MS and fixed node takes place via BS1.If MS is in the BS2 range, then BS2 is responsible for the communication. Thus there is a need for handoff mechanism between the two BSs. This is a layer2 handoff. Here the BSs share the same channel. The WiMAXControlAgent share the information among the BSs to perform the handoff. Additional mechanisms are required to continue the communication after layer2 handover. This is achieved by updating the MN address to simulate layer3 handoff and traffic redirection. The hierarchical addressing scheme provides the layer3 handoff to take place and the WiMAXControlAgents take care of the traffic redirection.

4.1 Explanations of Handoff Scenario

The MS is assigned with a control signal (link going down) which is triggered when the received RSS (receiver signal strength or received power level) decreased or crossed a threshold. This trigger causes the MS to send a scan request to its serving BS. On receiving the scan request, the WimaxCtrlAgent in the serving BS responds to the MS. The response message includes the ID and mean RSSI of current serving BS, ID and mean RSSI of neighbor BSs that are detected during scanning. Using this information the MS validates the response with its QOS requirement and switch over to the right channel at the specified time interval. Now, the MS will send MSHO-REQ message to the serving BS and the message type is MOB_MSHO_REQ. The serving BS will respond with MSHORSP to the MS using message type MOB_BSHO_RSP. After receiving the response from

serving BS and the MS initiates the procedure for handoff with the recommended BS whose mean RSS is high. Thus the MS changes its serving BSs depending upon its mobility which is constantly connected with the sink node. The traffic assigned during the communication is constant bit rate using a UDP agent.

4.2 Constant Parameters

Some of the parameters are set as constant in order to keep the simulation simple. The BS coverage area, transmit power as well as operating frequency were unchanged, and they were the same for the two BSs. Finally, the tests were also run with speeds 1-40 m/s (3.6-144 km/h) with 1 m/s steps. The assumed traffic was constant bit rate with data rate of 1.2 Mbit/s. The packet size was 1500 bytes and a packet was sent with 10 ms interval.

4.3 Adjusted Parameters

Since the simulator was deterministic, it is enough to run the simulation only once per change of a parameter. The adjustments displayed that some of the parameters did not have an influence at all to the handoff latency, but there were others that had an impact on the latency. The Link going down factor was one of the parameters with rather significant influence. It determined the detection sensitivity of a failing link, early enough before the connection is broken, or on the other hand, late enough, to avoid unnecessary handoffs. Several timer and timeout parameters had also their impact on the handoff latency. This was quite understandable since they usually define some time to wait before some function is performed. If the function is somehow related to the handoff process, it can delay the process even significantly. One of these was the t21_timeout, which is defined as the time for a MS to search for the DLMAP message on a certain channel. The MS velocity is the most important parameter which affects the throughput of the traffic heavily.

Chapter 5 PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS

5.1 Handoff Times with Different Velocity
The handoff times (for 1-40 m/s) are given in the Fig. 4. It is seen that, the higher speeds the handoff times are steadily increasing. Handoff times of less than 60ms are observed for frequencies up to 90km/hr which is acceptable and conforming to the WiMAX Forums specifications. Fig. 4

Fig. 4 Handoff Times With Different Velocity

5.2 Throughput with Different Velocity

The throughput has been calculated using Perl script for the generated traffic. From Fig.5 it is observed handoff latency and throughput are inversely proportional. Throughput remains reliably good for velocities up to 90km/hr.

Fig.5 Throughput with Different Velocity

CONCLUSION
This paper provides an overview about mobile WiMAX and its handoff support. The Mobile WiMAX offers three handoff methods. The mandatory HHO is used for the change of BS in the simulation part of the work. The simulations were performed with the Network Simulator version 2 (NS-2). The simulator does not support the Mobile WiMAX and additional modules had to be obtained. The add-ons available for this purpose were the WiMAX packets from NIST. The latency during both handoffs and the number of sent/received/dropped packets was examined. The simulator parameters were adjusted and their effects are noted. Additionally, after the adjustments, the parameters were kept constant and only the speed of MS was changed between 1-40 m/s, with 1 m/s step. The main task with simulations was to determine the parameters that had the greatest impact on the handoff latency when adjusted. As a result, some of the parameters did not influence the handoff times at all, but changing some of them even slightly had direct consequences. Significant impact was met by the parameters like changing velocity, Link Going Down factor, and different timeout & timer values such as the DLMAP timers. In future, this work is being extended for WiFi WiMAX interoperability using handoff mechanism.

REFERENCES
[1] Campbell, J. Gomez, S. Kim, A.G. Valko, C.-Y. Wang and Z.R. Turanyi,Design, Implementation and Evaluation of Cellular IP, IEEE Personal Comm. Magazine, 2000. [2] S. Das, A. Mcauley, A. Dutta, A. Misra, K. Chakraborty, and S. Das, IDMP: An Intra-Domain Mobility Management Protocol for Next Generation Wireless Networks, IEEE Wireless Comm., 2002 , vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 38-45. [3] E. Gustafsson, A. Jonsson, and C. Perkins, Mobile IPv4 Regional Registration, IETF Internet draft,. 2006. [4] A.A.-G. Helmy, M. Jaseemuddin, and G. Bhaskara, Multicast- Based Mobility: A Novel Architecture for Efficient Micromobility, IEEE J. Selected Areas in Comm., 2004, vol. 22, no. 4, pp. 677-690. [5] H.-J. Jang, J. Jee, Y.-H. Han, S.D. Park, and J. Cha, Mobile IPv6 Fast Handovers over IEEE 802.16e Networks, IETF Internet draft, work in progress, 2008. [6] Jee, R. Koodli, S. Park, J. Cha, and H. Jang, Mobile IPv4 Fast Handovers for 802.16e Networks, IETF Internet draft, work in progress, 2005 [7] Jui-Hung Yeh,Jyh-Cheng Chen, Prathima Agrawal, Fast Intra- Network and CrossLayer handover(FINCH) for WiMAX and Mobile Internet,IEEE Trans.on Mobile Computing, 2009 ,vol. 8, no. 4. [8] Kamran Etemad,, Overview of Mobile WiMAX Technology and Evolution, IEEE Communications Magazine, 2008. [9] H. Kim, K.-S.D. Wong, W. Chen, and C.L. Lau, Mobility-Aware MPLS in IPBased Wireless Access Networks, Proc. IEEE Global Telecomm. Conf. (GLOBECOM 01), 2001, pp. 3444-3448,. [10] W. Ma and Y. Fang, Dynamic Hierarchical Mobility Management Strategy for Mobile IP Networks, IEEE J. Selected Areas in Comm., 2004, vol. 22, no. 4, pp. 664-676. [11] R. Ramjee, K. Varadhan, L. Salgarelli, S.R. Thuel, S.-Y. Wang, and T.L. Porta,.HAWAII: A Domain-Based Approach for Supporting Mobility in Wide-Area Wireless Networks, IEEE/ACM Trans. Networking,, 2002, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 396410. [12] http://www.wimaxforum.org/.