Efficient location traffic management with multiple virtual layers

In mobile wireless networks, efficient location management for tracking and finding the mobile users is a critical issue. The traffic for location update can be excessive, especially at base stations that are near location area (LA) boundaries. In this paper we propose a new location update scheme which can significantly reduce the signaling traffic for location update. It is based on the virtual layer approach employing SubMSCs. Here the virtual layer is laid upon the original layer of LA's such that the mobile terminals moving around the boundary cells of adjacent LA's begin moving within a virtual LA. As a result, the proposed scheme significantly reduces the location update traffic compared to an overlapping scheme which is the most recent and efficient location update scheme.