A new metric for analyzing multi-step paging schemes in mobile networks

Efficient paging techniques are needed to reduce the cost of location management in mobile networks. Currently, all the cells of a location area (LA) are paged at the same time to locate the Mobile User (MU). Efforts have been made to reduce the overhead paging bandwidth cost by using multi-step paging methods. However, in the case of multi-step paging schemes. such as sequential paging and intelligent paging, additional paging delay is introduced. In this work, it is shown that if the paging cost is computed based on the number of paged cells only, in certain cases, one may obtain misleading results. To resolve this dilemma, a new cost function, in terms of the number of cells paged and the paging delay, is introduced. Thus, this new metric provides a powerful tool that can be used to analyze all multi-step paging procedures with constrained or unconstrained delay.