Fast Recovery Protocol for Database and Link Failures in Mobile Networks

An important issue in the design of future Personal Communication Services (PCS) networks is the efficient management of location information. The current IS-41 standard P C S architecture uses a centralized database, the Home Location Register (HLR), to store service and location information of each mobile registered in the PCS network. If the H L R fails, all incoming calls to a mobile from hosts which are not in the same location area as the mobile are lost. Location updates from mobiles to the H L R are also lost. Once the H L R is functional it can not direct calls to mobiles immediately as mobiles could have changed their location during the HLR's failure. Fast recovery from a failure of the H L R is hence important. A link failure in the network could partition the network resulting in a loss of location updates from mobiles affected by the failed link. W e present a new protocol for fast recovery of the H L R after a H L R failure or an intermediate link failure. The prot...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1998
• Where: ICCCN
• Authors: Govind Krishnamurthi, Stefano Chessa, Arun K. Somani
• Keywords: Communications, ICCCN 1998, Link Failure, Location Information, Location Updates