For data communication services gradually dominating in future wireless net-works, one crucial problem is to save battery power of data terminals usually requiring much power. In this thesis, a mobility management scheme in IP-based wireless networks is proposed to reduce power consumption of mobile hosts. The proposed scheme manages six states : communicating, attention/cell-connected, attention/PA-connected, idle, off/attached,and detached states for efficient management of power, radio resource and network load. The steady state probabilities for MH(mobile host) state transitions are derived using a semi-Markov process approach, and the power-saving effect of the proposed scheme is analyzed. The effect of various input parameters on the steady state probability and power consumption is also investigated. The proposed mobility management scheme yields significant power saving in comparison with the current mobility management schemes for Mobile IP-based wireless networks. The relationship among cell updates, PA updates, binding-lifetime-based registrations, and paging traffic is analyzed by introducing a mobility model appropriate for wireless IP users and network cost functions. An optimal value of paging area size and registration interval is derived to minimize network load. The proposed mobility management scheme for reducing power consumption can be utilized in IP-based wireless networks evolving toward all-IP based networks.
