Tracking Area Planning in Cellular Networks: Optimization and Performance Evaluation
2011 (English)Licentiate thesis, monograph (Other academic)
Abstract [en]
The enormous competition in the telecommunications market results in the necessity of optimized and cost-efficient networks for the operators and service providers. Tracing users cost-efficiently is one of the major challenges in the study of location management of wireless cellular networks. Tracking Area (TA) is a logical grouping of cells in Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks. TA manages and represents the location of User Equipments (UEs). One of the well-known performance consideration is the signaling overhead of tracking area update versus that for paging. This thesis deals with planning and optimization of tracking area configuration in LTE networks.
TA design must be revised over time in order to adapt to changes and trends in UE location and mobility patterns. Re-optimization of the initial planning subject to different cost budgets is one of the problems considered in the thesis. By re-optimization, the design is successively improved by re-assigning some cells to TAs other than their original ones. To solve the resulting problem, an algorithm based on repeated local search is developed.
By extending the line of research, the trade-off between the performance in terms of overall signaling overhead of the network and the reconfiguration cost is considered. This trade-off is modeled as a biobjective optimization problem to which the solutions are characterized by pareto-optimality. Solving the problem delivers a host of potential trade-offs among which the selection can be based on the preferences of a decision-maker. An integer programming model and a heuristic based on genetic algorithm are developed for solving the problem in large-scale networks.
In comparison to earlier generations of cellular networks, LTE systems allow for a more flexible configuration of TA design by means of Tracking Area List (TAL). How to utilize this flexibility in applying TAL to large-scale networks remains unexplored. In this thesis, three approaches for allocating and assigning TA lists have been presented, and their performance is compared with each other, as well as with the standard location management scheme.
Automatic reconfiguration is an important element in LTE. The network continuously collects UE statistics, and the management system adapts the network configuration to changes in UE distribution and demand. In this thesis an evaluation of dynamic configuration of TA design, including the use of TAL, has been performed and compared to the static configuration by using a case study.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Linköping: Linköping University Electronic Press , 2011. , p. 103
Series
Linköping Studies in Science and Technology. Thesis, ISSN 0280-7971 ; 1473
National Category
Engineering and Technology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-66262Local ID: LiU-TEK-LIC-2011:12ISBN: 978-91-7393-214-1 (print)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:liu-66262DiVA, id: diva2:402919
Presentation
2011-04-08, K2, Kåkenhus, Campus Norrköping, Linköpings universitet, Linköping, 13:15 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
2011-03-102011-03-102020-02-03Bibliographically approved