A cost-minimization algorithm for fast location tracking in mobile wireless networks

Location tracking is one of the most important issues in providing real-time applications over wireless networks due to its effect to quality of service (QoS), such as end-to-end delay, bandwidth utilization, and connection dropping probability. In this paper, we study cost minimization for locating mobile users under delay constraints in mobile wireless networks. Specifically, a new location tracking algorithm is developed to determine the position of mobile terminals under delay constraints, while minimizing the average locating cost based on a unimodal property. We demonstrate that the new algorithm not only results in minimum locating cost, but also has a lower computational complexity compared to existing algorithms. Furthermore, detailed searching procedures are discussed under both deterministic and statistic delay bounds. Numerical results for a variety of location probability distributions show that our algorithm compares favorably with existing algorithms.