Mobility management incorporating fuzzy logic for a heterogeneous IP environment

The next generation in mobility management will enable different mobile networks to interoperate with each other to ensure terminal and personal mobility and global portability of network services. However, in order to ensure global mobility, the deployment and integration of both satellite and terrestrial components are necessary. This article is focused on issues related to mobility management in a future mobile communications system, in a scenario where a multisegment access network is integrated into an IP core network by exploiting the principles of Mobile IP. In particular, attention is given to the requirements for location, address, and handover management. In a heterogeneous environment, the need to perform handover between access networks imposes particular constraints on the type of information available to the terminal and network. In this case, consideration will need to be given to parameters other than radio characteristics, such as achievable quality of service and user preference. This article proposes a new approach to handover management by applying the fuzzy logic concept to a heterogeneous environment. The article concludes with the presentation of mobility management signaling protocols.