Agent-Based Forwarding Strategies for Reducing Location Management Cost in Mobile Networks

A major issue with location management in mobile wireless networks is the high cost associated with location updates and searches. A search occurs when a caller needs to connect to a mobile user whose location is unknown to the caller and the network must locate the callee. An update occurs when a mobile user moves into a new registration area and the network is informed of the location change. We propose and analyze a class of new agent-based forwarding strategies with the objective to reduce the location management cost in mobile wireless networks. We develop analytical Markov models to compare the performance of the proposed strategies with existing location management schemes to demonstrate their feasibility and also to reveal conditions under which the proposed schemes are superior to existing ones.