Taming Mobility Management Functions in 5G: Handover Functionality as a Service (FaaS)

TY - CHAP

T1 - Taming Mobility Management Functions in 5G

T2 - Handover Functionality as a Service (FaaS)

AU - Codes Morales, Albert

AU - Aijaz, Adnan

AU - Mahmoodi, Toktam

PY - 2015/12

Y1 - 2015/12

N2 - With the shift towards decoupling of data and control plane and the softwarization in mobile networks, delivery of mobile network control functionalities can be foreseen as over the top services. We envisage such move within the paradigm of Functionality as a Service (FaaS); a platform that can also deliver requirements of the 5th generation mobile, i.e. 5G. In this paper, we briefly explain architectural elements of mobile networks that can materialize the FaaS platform, and discuss the mobility management within the FaaS platform. Relying on these architectural elements, we propose modelling the dynamics of mobile network topology, including fixed base stations and mobileusers, as a self-regulatory network. Therefore, users’ mobility is provisioned and traffic flow is moved to the next point of attachment, i.e. the next base station, with no handover request from the mobile device. Clearly, there is a trade-off between keeping the abstract model up-to-date and the increased overhead of the updates. Hence, we further examine the effect of such out-of-date and insufficient information in the abstraction. The investigations are carried out in network simulator (ns-3) and it can be seen while reducing frequency of updates results in the increased packet loss, an optimal balance between overhead andpacket loss can be achieved.

AB - With the shift towards decoupling of data and control plane and the softwarization in mobile networks, delivery of mobile network control functionalities can be foreseen as over the top services. We envisage such move within the paradigm of Functionality as a Service (FaaS); a platform that can also deliver requirements of the 5th generation mobile, i.e. 5G. In this paper, we briefly explain architectural elements of mobile networks that can materialize the FaaS platform, and discuss the mobility management within the FaaS platform. Relying on these architectural elements, we propose modelling the dynamics of mobile network topology, including fixed base stations and mobileusers, as a self-regulatory network. Therefore, users’ mobility is provisioned and traffic flow is moved to the next point of attachment, i.e. the next base station, with no handover request from the mobile device. Clearly, there is a trade-off between keeping the abstract model up-to-date and the increased overhead of the updates. Hence, we further examine the effect of such out-of-date and insufficient information in the abstraction. The investigations are carried out in network simulator (ns-3) and it can be seen while reducing frequency of updates results in the increased packet loss, an optimal balance between overhead andpacket loss can be achieved.

KW - 5G mobile

KW - Functionality as a Service (FaaS)

KW - Mobility management

KW - Softwaredefined Networking

U2 - 10.1109/GLOCOMW.2015.7414151

DO - 10.1109/GLOCOMW.2015.7414151

M3 - Conference paper

BT - 2015 IEEE Globecom Workshops

PB - IEEE

ER -