Optimised mobility tracking in current and future mobile networks

4th Generation (4G) Mobile Networks based on the All-IP paradigm are aggressively deployed worldwide and 5th Generation (5G) mobile networks will emerge in the forthcoming years. Signaling load optimization on the air-interface is vital for mobile telecommunications. One of the major issues considered by research is the tracking update versus paging trade-off. This means that there is a trade-off between signaling load due to the need to update the mobile location (tracking update load) when in idle mode versus the load to locate the mobile when paged. This paper provides an efficient solution to this problem by demonstrating that there is an optimum size for a Tracking Area List (TAL) in terms of Tracking Areas (TAs). The optimization is flexible because a) it can be applied individually for each User Equipment (UE) b) it is based on parameters that can be measured or approximated in real time by Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and c) the optimal size can be updated regularly based on the changing user habits. The solution is provided in closed analytical form and it is applicable to all mobile network technologies that adopt the flexible TAL method for tracking update, which means it is applicable in 4G/LTE Networks and it is targeted for 5G Networks. © 2017 TEI OF WESTERN MacEdonia