On location management for personal communications networks

Personal communications services (PCS) support mobile terminals (MTs) which are free to travel within the service coverage area. In order to effectively locate an MT when a called is initiated, location management schemes are used to keep track of the locations of the MTs. The current approach to location management requires each MT to report its location to the network periodically. The location information is then stored in databases. When a call is initiated, the network determines the current location of the called MT through a database lookup and paging procedure. In this article, a currently available standard for location management is described. Recent research results on location management are surveyed in detail.