Efficient tracking area management in carrier cloud

One important objective of 5G mobile networks is to accommodate a diverse and ever-creasing number of user equipment (UEs). Coping with the massive signaling overhead expected from UEs is an important hurdle to tackle to achieve this objective. In this paper, we propose three solutions that aim for finding optimal distributions of tracking areas (TAs) in the form of TA lists (TALs) and assigning them to UEs, with the objectives of minimizing two conflicting metrics, namely paging overhead and tracking area update (TAU) overhead. Two solutions favors one objective than the other. The third one incorporates a novel scheme, dubbed Fair and Optimal TAL Assignment (FOTA), based on Nash bargaining game theory. FOTA improves overall network performance minimizing overhead due to both paging and TAU messages, taking into account the behavior and mobility features of UEs. The performance of proposed schemes are evaluated via simulations and the obtained results demonstrate their feasibility and ability in achieving their design goals, improving network performance by minimizing cost associated with paging and TAU.