Stratospheric platforms have been recently proposed as a new wireless infrastructure for realizing the next generation of communication systems. To provide high quality services, an investigation of the wireless stratospheric platform channel is essential. This paper proposes a definition and describes an analysis of the wireless channel for the link between stratospheric platforms and terrestrial mobile users based on an experiment in a semi-urban environment. Narrowband channel characteristics are presented in terms of Ricean factor (K factor) and local mean received power over a wide range of elevation angles ranging from 10to 90. Finally, we evaluated average bit error probability based on the proposed channel model to examine the channel performance. For the environment in which the measurements were conducted, we find that elevation angles greater than 40yield better performance.

Hierarchical Mobile IPv6 (HMIPv6) was proposed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) for efficient mobility management. HMIPv6 reduces the amount of signaling in the wired network link that exists in Mobile IPv6. But, HMIPv6 cannot reduce the signaling cost in the wireless link. In mobile networks, the wireless link has far less available bandwidth resources and limited scalability compared with the wired network link. Therefore, the signaling overhead associated with mobility management severely degrades the wireless link. In this paper, we propose virtual-IP (VIP) allocation scheme with dynamic VIP zone to reduce the wireless signaling cost in mobile networks. The performance of the proposed scheme is compared with HMIPv6. Based on the numerical analysis and simulation, we show that VIP allocation scheme reduces the wireless signaling cost under various system conditions.

A novel mobile assignment method based on transmit power and cell load is proposed for WCDMA base station location planning. Experimental results show that, compared with the currently widely used mobile assignment method based on link attenuation, the proposed mobile assignment method is more reasonable and unnecessary base stations are reduced in the planning results.

A novel distributed dynamic regional location management scheme called MORR (Mobility Oriented Regional Registration) is proposed for Mobile IP to improve the signaling traffic cost of a mobile node. This improvement is achieved by adjusting each mobile node's optimal regional domains according to its mobility behavior. With Mobile IP, the capricious mobility and variable traffic load of a mobile node has an impact on its average signaling traffic cost. In this paper, the mobility of all mobile nodes is classified into two modes: random mobility mode and regular mobility mode. We develop new analytical models to formulate the movement behavior and mathematically evaluate their characteristics when applied to these two modes. MORR has the adaptability to manipulate various mobility modes of each mobile node in dedicated ways to determine an optimal regional domain of this mobile node. Simulation results show that anywhere from 3 to 15 percent of the signaling cost is saved by MORR in comparison with the previous distributed dynamic location management schemes for various scenarios.

The capability of Hierarchical Mobile IP (HMIP) for intra-domain route optimization is impaired when it is combined with Network Mobility (NEMO) technology. Deviations from the optimum path, caused by traffic aggregation in the Mobility Anchor Point (MAP), can be observed within a hierarchical domain. The problem is particularly noticeable in domains that span the mesh network topology. The lack of intra-domain path optimization in multi-level Mobile IP (MIP) leads to inefficient use of network resources. A Proxy Mobility Anchor Point (PMAP) functionality is proposed in domain nodes to enable intra-domain path optimization in multi-level MIP. Numerical evaluation and simulations indicate that this proposal can improve routing efficiency and throughput. The solution can be especially rewarding in network architectures where access network is separated from global network by bottleneck links and where the majority of users accessing the network are mobile routers.

New service concepts involving mobile devices with a diverse range of embedded sensors are emerging that share contexts supporting communication on a wireless network infrastructure. To promote these services in mobile devices, we propose a method that can efficiently detect a context provider by partitioning the location, time, speed, and discovery sensitivities.

Wireless sensor networks present a promising opportunity for realizing many practical applications. Tracking is one of the important applications of these networks. Many approaches have been proposed in the literature to deal with the tracking problem. Recently, a particular type of tracking problem called on-site tracking has been introduced [15],[16]. On-site tracking has been characterized as the tracking in which the sink is eventually required to be present in the vicinity of the target, possibly to perform further actions. In this paper, first we propose two efficient on-site tracking algorithms. Then, we derive theoretical upper bounds for the tracking time and the number of messages generated by the sensor nodes during the tracking for our algorithms. Finally, we present a simulation study that we conducted to evaluate the performance of our algorithms. The results show that our algorithms are efficient as compared to the other existing methods that can solve the on-site tracking problem. In particular, the path adaptive nature of the sink in our algorithms allows the network to conserve the energy and the sink to reduce the tracking time.

Mobile applications require software reconfiguration to improve resource usage and availability. We propose a power-aware reconfiguration scheme that (1) moves energy-demanding applications to proxy servers, and (2) adjusts the fidelity of mobile applications as resources diminish. We formulate a cooperative reconfiguration plan which determines when, where, and which components should be deployed and have their fidelity controlled, so as to minimize the power consumption of mobile devices and to utilize the system resources of servers efficiently. We then construct a graph-theoretic model of the cost of migrating components to one proxy server or to a cluster of servers. In this model, changes to the residual energy of mobile devices, available server resources, and the wireless network bandwidth can all accelerate or decelerate the migration and fidelity control of applications. We suggest an approximation algorithm that achieves a near-optimal solution in terms of energy consumption. Our proposal will support mobile applications which require large amount of computation and need to maintain their services for an extended time such as video conferencing, multimedia e-mail, and real-time navigation. Simulation-based experiments verify that our scheme is an efficient way to extend the battery life of mobile devices and to improve the response time of mobile applications.

The IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) has developed a Network Mobility (NEMO) basic support protocol by extending the operation of Mobile IPv6 to provide uninterrupted Internet connectivity to the communicating nodes of mobile networks. The protocol uses a mobile router (MR) in the mobile network to perform prefix scope binding updates with its home agent (HA) to establish a bi-directional tunnel between the HA and MR. This solution reduces location-update signaling by making network movements transparent to the mobile nodes behind the MR. However, delays in data delivery and higher overheads are likely to occur because of sub-optimal routing and multiple encapsulation of data packets. To resolve these problems, we propose a mobile router-assisted route optimization (MoRaRo) scheme for NEMO support. With MoRaRo, a mobile node performs route optimization with a correspondent node only once, at the beginning of a session. After that the MR performs route optimization on behalf of all active mobile nodes when the network moves. The virtue of this scheme is that it requires only slight modification of the implementation of the NEMO basic support protocol at local entities such as the MR and mobile nodes of the mobile network, leaving entities in the core or in other administrative domains untouched. MoRaRo enables a correspondent node to forward packets directly to the mobile network without any tunneling, thus reducing packet delay and encapsulation overheads in the core network. To enable the scheme to be evaluated, we present the results of both theoretical analysis and simulation.

This paper presents a novel analytical approach to evaluate the signaling load of Mobile IPv6 (MIPv6) and Hierarchical Mobile IPv6 (HMIPv6). Previous analytical approaches for IP mobility management have not provided a complete and general framework for the performance analysis; no consideration of either periodic binding refresh cost or extra packet tunneling cost from the viewpoint of IP mobility management, and no in-depth investigation with respect to various system parameters. In this paper, according to the proposed analytical approach, we derive the location update costs (i.e., the sum of binding update costs and binding refresh costs), packet tunneling costs, inside-domain signaling costs, outside-domain signaling costs, and total signaling costs, which are generated by a mobile node (MN) during its average domain residence time in case MIPv6 or HMIPv6 is deployed under the same network architecture, respectively. Moreover, based on these derived costs, we evaluate the impacts of various system parameters on the signaling costs generated by an MN in MIPv6 and HMIPv6. The aim of this paper is not to determine which protocol performs better, but evaluate the performance that can be expected for each protocol under the various conditions, broaden our deep understanding of the various parameters that may influence the performance, and provide insight for the deployment of the two protocols.

During devastating natural disasters, numerous people want to make calls to check on their families and friends in the stricken areas, but many call attempts on mobile cellular systems are blocked due to limited radio frequency resources. To reduce call blocking and enable as many people as possible to access mobile cellular systems, placing a limit on the holding time for each call has been studied [1],[2]. However, during a catastrophe, emergency calls, e.g., calls to fire, ambulance, or police services are also highly likely to increase and it is important that the holding time for these calls is not limited. A method of limiting call holding time to make provision for emergency calls while considering the needs of ordinary callers is proposed. In this method, called the HTL-E method, all calls are classified as emergency calls or other according to the numbers that are dialed or the terminal numbers that are given in advance to the particular terminals making emergency calls, and only the holding time of other calls is limited. The performance characteristics of the HTL-E method were evaluated using computer simulations. The results showed that it reduced the rates of blocking and forced call termination at handover considerably, without reducing the holding time for emergency calls. The blocking rate was almost equal for emergency and other calls. In addition, the HTL-E method handles fluctuations in the demand for emergency calls flexibly. A simple method of estimating the holding-time limit for other calls, which reduces the blocking rate for emergency and other calls to the normal rate for periods of increased call demand is also presented. The calculated results produced by this method agreed well with the simulation results.

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) eigenbeam space division multiplexing that uses adaptive modulations for substreams is a promising technology for improving transmission capacity. A fundamental drawback of this approach is that the modulation levels determined from the carrier-to-noise ratio at each substream are sometimes overly optimistic so the use of these modulation levels results in transmission errors and diminished transmission performance. A novel method of determining substream modulation levels is proposed that alleviates this degradation. In the proposed method, the expected bit error rates for possible modulations of each substream are calculated from delay profiles. Simulation results indicate that transmission capacity is improved by 30% using the new method compared with the conventional method.

Our group is exploring interactive multi- and hypermedia, especially applied to virtual and mixed reality multimodal groupware systems. We are researching user interfaces to control source→sink transmissions in synchronous groupware (like teleconferences, chatspaces, virtual concerts, etc.). We have developed two interfaces for privacy visualization of narrowcasting (selection) functions in collaborative virtual environments (CVES): for a workstation WIMP (windows/icon/menu/pointer) GUI (graphical user interface), and for networked mobile devices, 2.5- and 3rd-generation mobile phones. The interfaces are integrated with other CVE clients, interoperating with a heterogeneous multimodal groupware suite, including stereographic panoramic browsers and spatial audio backends & speaker arrays. The narrowcasting operations comprise an idiom for selective attention, presence, and privacy-- an infrastructure for rich conferencing capability.

Mobile devices have acceleratedly penetrated into our daily lives. Though they were originally designed as a communication tool or for personal use, and due to the rapid availability of wireless network technologies, people have begun to use mobile devices for supporting collaborative work and learning. There is, however, a serious problem in mobile devices related to their user interfaces. In this paper, we try to alleviate the problem and propose intuitive techniques for information transfer, which is one of the typical usages of mutually-connected computers. Our system, Toss-It, enables a user to send information from the user's PDA to other electronic devices with a "toss" or "swing" action, like a user would toss a ball or deal cards to others. The implementation of Toss-It consists of three principle parts - gesture recognition, location recognition, and file transfer. We especially describe the details of gesture recognition and location recognition. We then evaluate the practicability and usability of Toss-It through the experiments. We also discuss user scenarios describing how Toss-It can support users' collaborative activities.

Mobile agent technology is applied to enhance the remote network management of large-scale networks, and real-world oriented entertainment systems, and so forth. In order to communicate, the agents exchange messages mutually and migrate repeatedly among terminals. Although these systems efficiently accomplish the tasks by using a large quantity of mobile agents, they have a serious problem in that the number of messages between agents increases in proportion to the square of the number of agents. These systems have to reduce the communication costs, such as the number of hosts relaying messages; however, the conventional message-delivering schemes alone cannot keep the communication costs to a minimum under all conditions. To minimize the communication costs, we propose a hybrid message-delivering scheme which dynamically selects the optimal message-delivering schemes. Firstly, we evaluate the communication costs of conventional schemes, and we design the hybrid message-delivering scheme. Then we perform simulation evaluations to derive the threshold value for switching a scheme to minimize the communication costs.

We propose an efficient and practical seamless handoff scheme for 4G mobile systems based on IP and OFDM. The seamless handoff scheme obtains the physical channel for handoff in a contention-free manner with pre-synchronization and pre-forwarding IP contexts. As a result, it thoroughly decreases the physical channel blocking time as well as IP layer context-switching time to minimize total handoff delay.

In [1], an algorithm based on phase variations of received pilot symbols was proposed to estimate one of the most important channel parameters, maximum Doppler shift, fd. However, AWGN (Additive white gauss noise) will cause large estimation error in some cases. In order to analyze the influence of noise, we extended the phase probability density function (pdf) in [1] to the scenario with both fading and AWGN, then the estimation error is characterized in closed-form expression. By this error expression, we found that power control will affect the estimator of [1] and we proposed a modification method based on SNR estimation to obtain accurate Doppler shift estimation in moderate low SNRs (signal-to-noise ratio). Simulation results show high accuracy in wide range of velocities and SNRs.

This paper discusses effective configuration methods for peer-to-peer (P2P) network topologies within a mobile ad-hoc network. With recent progress in mobile ad-hoc network technology promoting the creation of new and attractive services, we are examining and developing P2P network systems for operation within ad-hoc networks. Our focus is on identifying methods of network-topology control that provide the best balance between performance and availability. We evaluate three methods through computer simulation and field trials from the viewpoints of resource consumption and network integrity, and clarify their domains of applicability. The results are expected to contribute to the design of future P2P networks for operation in mobile ad-hoc networks.

The advent of mobile IP communication has opened up several new areas of mission critical communication applications. But the bandwidth and reliability constraints coupled with handover latency are posing some hurdles which need to be overcome before real world mobile IP applications, with low tolerance for data loss, can be deployed. In this paper, we analyze the unreliability of existing information collection methods in the real-world MobileIP environment. We focus on this problem and propose a novel network management model that anticipates the wireless mobile entities and uses SNMP. The key idea of this model is the introduction of a store-and-forward type Managed Object (MO). During the period of unreachability between the Manager and the agent, the data is cached at the agent until the connectivity recovers. In our experiment we used a prototype implementation in real-world wireless communication field, and showed the effectiveness of our proposed method.

We study the impact of incorporating handoff prediction information in the session admission control process in mobile cellular networks. We evaluate the performance of optimal policies obtained with and without the predictive information, while taking into account possible prediction errors. Two different approaches to compute the optimal admission policy were studied: dynamic programming and reinforcement learning. Numerical results show significant performance gains when the predictive information is used in the admission process.