LAMPS: Location Agents and Mobile-PNNI Scheme

In this paper we introduce a new location management mechanism, called LAMPS (Location Agents and Mobile PNNI Scheme). This mechanism was designed for large private wireless ATM environments, where the switches are inter-connected using the PNNI (Private Network-to-Network Interface) protocol. In such an environment it is expected that mobility enhanced switches will co-exist with standard switches (i.e., no support for mobility procedures), and that different sets of switches will form disjoint areas of continuous radio coverage. LAMPS takes advantage of the PNNI routing functionality to tackle the location management requirements. In addition, location agents located in the enhanced mobility switches, store when required, the location areas of the mobility terminals. The efficiency of the aforementioned mechanism is presented by the results of an analytical model developed for this purpose.