IP paging considered unnecessary: Mobile IPv6 and IP paging for dormant mode location update in macrocellular and hotspot networks

Cellular telephones save power by switching to a low power or dormant mode when there is no active traffic. In dormant mode, the telephone periodically checks for a beacon, and if the beacon indicates that the phone has moved to a new paging area, the telephone performs a paging area update. Paging area update signaling requires considerably less power than is required to move an active traffic channel. When a call comes in, the network pages the telephone by flood signaling the paging area on a special channel, and the telephone brings up an active traffic channel. Recent work has attempted to extend paging to IP networks, in particular, networks running the Mobile IP mobility management protocol. In this paper, we compare mobile IPv6 and IP paging for dormant mode location updating. Simulations are presented for a typical macrocellular scenario and a hotspot scenario, where broadband microcells supplement the narrowband macrocells. The results show that Mobile IPv6 dormant mode location management is roughly comparable to IP paging.