Analysis of handoff patterns in mobility management

Performance increase and cost-benefit tradeoff are important factors in the design of network protocols for mobility support in wireless systems beyond 3G. In this paper we present a method to evaluate handoffs which can be applied to study mobility protocols at network- and data-link layers. The handoffs of a moving mobile terminal are modelled as a stochastic process. An embedded Markov chain and a theory of runs is employed for sequential estimation of handoff occurances. In the experimental part of the paper we study network setup scenario with four radio access points providing service to mobile terminals and obtain probability density function for the number of handoff occurances.