Mobility management protocol in dual-homed UMTS networks

As the subscriber numbers soar and traffic load increases in the network, operators face various challenges during post planning stages of their network. One such post planning problem relates to minimizing of total handoff cost in a cellular network. This is solved by making some Radio Network Controllers (RNCs) dual homed [4]. Conventionally UMTS networks are single homed in which one RNC is connected to one MSC/SGSN. In dual homed network one RNC can be connected to at most two MSCs/SGSNs. In this paper, we have proposed a scheme for handoff management in dual homed network. We have modified the existing protocol related to Iu-PS interface to incorporate the handoff handling in a dual homed network. It has been shown that when the RNC is dual homed, approximately four commands are not required thus saving the handoff handling cost. It is found that little changes in the existing 3GPP specified mobility management protocol in the single homed network is needed to take care of handoff management effectively under the dual homing scenario of RNC.