Virtual Agent Clustering Based Mobility Management Over the Satellite Networks

Abstract

Due to the high dynamic characteristics of the low-orbit satellite networks, the frequent handovers of the users led to heavy mobility management load and large handover delay. To solve these problems, one mobility management mechanism based on the virtual agent domain (VAD) is proposed. In this mechanism, a virtual agent cluster (VAC) is designed to co-manage the network architecture of users in the corresponding VAD. With the on-board processing and switching capabilities, the architecture of the distributed mobility management mechanism is adopted to support the information sharing between the VACs, which reduces the performance requirements for single satellite and improves the system scalability. Then, we construct the home mobile-agent-anchor (HMAA) and the local MAA. In this way, the MN triggers a binding update to the HA only when the home MAA is lost, and the MN's switching within the VAD only needs to update its intra-domain relations, which reduces the overhead of mobility management and switching delay. Furthermore, the proposed scheme is theoretically evaluated in terms of the signaling overhead and handover latency. Finally, the numerical simulation results are presented to verify the efficacy of our scheme. The experimental platform also demonstrates the availability and efficiency of the new mechanism.INDEX TERMS Low-orbit satellite network, mobility management protocol, virtual agent domain, information sharing, home mobile agent anchor, simulation platform.

Non-Terrestrial Networks in 5G & Beyond: A Survey

“…In [120], the authors introduced a virtual agent cluster (VAC) to manage handovers and construct the home mobileagent-anchor (HMAA) and the local mobile-agent-anchor (LMAA) to let users share their location information. To avoid handover failures, the authors in [121] formulated a novel method of handover prediction based on the UE velocity that is non-negligible in LEO satellite networks.…”

Location Management in IP-based Future LEO Satellite Networks: A Review

“…To overcome the limitations of IETF IP-based location management, one of three approaches was followed by the existing studies on LEO SatNets location management. The first approach attempted to enhance or extend the IETF IPbased location management techniques [7], [8]. The second approach is based on the split of the two roles of IP addresses (i.e., locator/identifier split) [9], [10].…”

“…• After completing the binding update with the HA, the HA and the Access Router (AR) at the foreign network (i.e., Foreign Access Router (FAR)) will establish a bidirectional tunnel to deliver the data packets between the Corresponding Node (CN) and MN. In this case, the data packets have to traverse the HA, which is not necessarily the optimum route [7].…”

“…Fixed geographical location areas fulfill this requirement as it reduces the bending update frequency. However, when delivering data to a MN, huge and complex operations should be done by the network to determine to which satellites the MN is connected at that moment and to hide the effect of frequent satellite movement from the MN [7]. A location management scheme based on dual LAs in an IP-based LEO SatNet is proposed [47].…”

“…A virtual mobility management scheme called VMIPv6, which is an enhancement of MIPv6 protocol, is proposed in [7]. VMIPv6 adopts the anchorless concept of location management and the distributed architecture introduced in the IETF's DMM requirements document (RFC 7333) [50].…”