Optimum location area sizes and reverse virtual call setup in PCS networks

The increased demand for wireless PCS communications coupled with limited spectrum has motivated many to investigate techniques that minimize the radio link traffic needed to deliver calls to users and to track their locations. As the location area increases, the paging cost increases and the registration cost decreases. Previous work minimized the radio link traffic in a single cell along the perimeter of a location area. In this paper, we minimize the total radio bandwidth traffic throughout the entire system. This approach results in a larger location area. This will reduce the fixed network signaling load. This paper also briefly describes a new scheme for delivering mobile terminated calls called the reverse virtual call setup (RVC) algorithm. We evaluate the radio link cost when a separate overlaid paging system is used in conjunction with RVC. It is shown to be relatively insensitive to location area size over a large range of practical parameters. Results indicate that the location area size should be as large as the restrictions of finite bandwidth and power permit. A one-to-one relationship between a mobile switching center (MSC) and a location area is shown to be a good solution.