Optimal decision strategies for paging in mobile cellular networks

Abstract

A high‐level technical survey of paging in mobile cellular communication networks is presented in this paper. We view paging as an optimal decision problem and explore different strategies based on sequential decisions. The examined schemes concentrate on different perspectives of the problem, depending on the type of decisions and the amount of information available or exploitable by the system. This approach provides a useful categorization and an easy conceptual basis for their theoretical investigation, necessary for the deployment of advanced paging algorithms. Because of its suggested generality, the discussed framework is also laid as reference for further research. As modern networks evolve, more emphasis will be given towards optimization in all aspects of a network system. The schemes presented greatly reduce paging costs and can be used in cooperation with known location update strategies to make part of a real network location management system. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.