A Caching Strategy to Reduce Network Impacts of PCS

Ravi Jain, Yi-Bing Lin, Seshadri Mohan, Charles Lo*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

246 Scopus citations

Abstract

We propose an auxiliary strategy, called peruser caching, for locating users who move from place to place while using Personal Communications Services (PCS). The caching strategy augments the basic location strategy proposed in existing standards such as GSM and IS-41, with the objective of reducing network signaling and database loads in exchange for increased CPU processing and memory costs. Since technology trends are driving the latter costs down, the auxiliary strategy will become increasingly attractive. The idea behind caching is to reuse the information about a called user's location for subsequent calls to that user, and is useful for those users who receive calls frequently relative to the rate at which they change registration areas. This idea attempts to exploit the spatial and temporal locality in calls received by users, similar to the idea of exploiting locality of file access in computer systems. We use a reference PCS architecture and the notion of a user's local call-to-mobility ratio (LCMR) to quantify the costs and benefits of using caching and classes of users for whom it would be beneficial. We also present two simple algorithms for estimating users‘ LCMR and the situation in which each is preferable. We show that under a variety of assumptions caching is likely to yield significant net benefits in terms of reduced signaling network traffic and database loads.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1434-1444
Number of pages11
JournalIEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications
Volume12
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 1994

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