Modified Virtual Layer Scheme for Location Management

One of main issues in mobile wireless networks is how to deal with moving terminals. As the movement implies a change of access point, the wireless network must be able to determine the location of moving terminals in order to set-up a connection and route incoming messages. Location management is for tracking and locating the mobile terminal. In this paper we propose a novel location management scheme with which the amount of signaling traffic required for location update can be significantly reduced compared to earlier schemes. It is achieved by employing the partial virtual layer approach on top of the overlapping [6] approach, which effectively avoids the oscillation effect occurring when a mobile user travels along the boundary of two adjacent LA's. Besides, the scheme reduces the number of VLRs.