A Survey on Scheduling in IEEE 802.16 Mesh Mode

Cataloged from PDF version of article.IEEE 802.16 standard (also known as WiMAX) defines the wireless broadband network technology which aims to solve the so called last mile problem via providing high bandwidth Internet even to the rural areas for which the cable deployment is very costly. The standard mainly focuses on the MAC and PHY layer issues, supporting two transmission modes: PMP (Point-to-Multipoint) and mesh modes. Mesh mode is an optional mode developed as an extension to PMP mode and it has the advantage of having an improving performance as more subscribers are added to the system using multi-hop routes. In 802.16 MAC protocol, mesh mode slot allocation and reservation mechanisms are left open which makes this topic a hot research area. Hence, the focus of this survey will mostly be on the mesh mode, and the proposed scheduling algorithms and performance evaluation methods

Study of IEEE802.16e standards to improve QoS throughput and delay analysis of PMP MAC Scheduling algorithms

WiMAX has two modes of operation: Point to Multi Point (PMP) mode and Mesh mode. PMP mode consists of one BS and multiple SS.The Wi-MAX is IEEE 802.16 Wireless network standard which recently used for Broadband Wireless communication. Now days to satisfy the highest demand of broadband wireless access by using various resource of bandwidth is a biggest challenge for Researchers, in this time WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) emerged as a better solution to fulfil that demand. To provide authentic services for voice, data and videos WiMAX define the various QoS parameters at Media Access Control (MAC) layer. WiMAX structure is based on IEEE 802.16 OSI standard and defines the PMP (Point to Multipoint) and Mesh modes for transmission of information. In this study, cross-layer scheduling algorithm for Wimax networks has been proposed

Cross-layer RaCM design for vertically integrated wireless networks

Includes bibliographical references (p. 70-74).Wireless local and metropolitan area network (WLAN/WMAN) technologies, more specifically IEEE 802.11 (or wireless fidelity, WiFi) and IEEE 802.16 (or wireless interoperability for microwave access, WiMAX), are well-suited to enterprise networking since wireless offers the advantages of rapid deployment in places that are difficult to wire. However, these networking standards are relatively young with respect to their traditional mature high-speed low-latency fixed-line networking counterparts. It is more challenging for the network provider to supply the necessary quality of service (QoS) to support the variety of existing multimedia services over wireless technology. Wireless communication is also unreliable in nature, making the provisioning of agreed QoS even more challenging. Considering the advantages and disadvantages, wireless networks prove well-suited to connecting rural areas to the Internet or as a networking solution for areas that are difficult to wire. The focus of this study specifically pertains to IEEE 802.16 and the part it plays in an IEEE vertically integrated wireless Internet (WIN): IEEE 802.16 is a wireless broadband backhaul technology, capable of connecting local area networks (LANs), wireless or fixed-line, to the Internet via a high-speed fixed-line link

Performance Analysis and Enhancement of QoS Framework for Fixed WiMAX Networks. Design, analysis and evaluation of 802.16 Point-to-Multipoint (PMP) Quality of Service Framework based on uplink scheduler and call admission control analysis.

Given the current developments and advances in the scientific and technological aspects of human knowledge and introducing new approaches in various fields of telecommunication technologies and industries, there has been an increasing growth in its players¿ plans and a positive change in their outlooks in order to achieve the target of "anywhere and anytime access". Recent developments of WiMAX (Worldwide interoperability for Microwave Access) networks, as a sign of increasing needs and demands for new telecommunication services and capabilities, have led to revolutions in global telecommunication which should be perceived properly in terms of the commercial and technical aspects in order to enjoy the new opportunities. Most experts believe that WiMAX technology is a preliminary step to develop Fourth Generation networks known as 4G technologies. It has not only succeeded in the utilization of several of the latest telecommunication techniques in the form of unique practical standards, but also paved the way for the quantitative and qualitative developments of high-speed broadband access. IEEE 802.16 Standard introduces several advantages, and one of them is the support for Quality of Services (QoS) at the Media Access Control (MAC) level. For these purposes, the standard defines several scheduling classes at MAC layer to treat service flow in a different way, depending on QoS requirements. In this thesis, we have proposed a new QoS framework for Point-to-Multi Point (PMP) 802.16 systems operating in Time Division Duplexing (TDD) mode over a WirelessMAN-OFDM physical layer. The proposed framework consists of a Call Admission Control (CAC) module and a scheduling scheme for the uplink traffic as well as a simple frame allocation scheme. The proposed CAC module interacts with the uplink scheduler status and it makes its decision based on the scheduler queue status; on the other hand, the proposed scheduling scheme for the uplink traffic aims to support realtime flows and adapts the frame-by-frame allocations to the current needs of the connections, with respect to the grants boundaries fixed by the CAC module. Extensive OPNET simulation demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed architecture

An efficient scheduling for diverse QoS requirements in WiMAX

WiMAX is one of the most important broadband wireless technologies and is anticipated to be a viable alternative to traditional wired broadband techniques due to its cost efficiency. Being an emerging technology, WiMAX supports multimedia applications such as voice over IP (VoIP), voice conference and online gaming. It is necessary to provide Quality of Service (QoS) guaranteed with different characteristics, quite challenging, however, for Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) networks. Therefore, an effective scheduling is critical for the WiMAX system. Many traffic scheduling algorithms are available for wireless networks, e.g. Round Robin, Proportional Fairness (PF) scheme and Integrated Cross-layer scheme (ICL). Among these conventional schemes, some cannot differentiate services, while some can fulfill the service differentiation with a high-complexity implementation. This thesis proposes a novel scheduling algorithm for Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex/Time Division Multiple Access (OFDM/TDMA)-based systems, which extends the PF scheme to multiple service types with diverse QoS requirements. The design objective is to provide differentiated services according to their QoS requirements, while the objective can be achieved by adjusting only one unique parameter, the time window for evaluating the average throughput. By extensive simulation, it is shown that the proposed scheduling algorithm exploits the advantage of the PF scheme, enhancing the throughput, and distinguishes the services in terms of the average delay. Afterward, we prove the superiority of the new scheme over the conventional ones by showing simulation results

Portfolio peak algorithms achieving superior performance for maximizing throughput in WiMAX networks

The Mobile WiMAX IEEE 802.16 standards ensure provision of last mile wireless access, variable and high data rate, point to multi-point communication, large frequency range and QoS (Quality of Service) for various types of applications. The WiMAX standards are published by the Institute of Electric and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and specify the standards of services and transmissions. However, the way how to run these services and when the transmission should be started are not specified in the IEEE standards and it is up to computer scientists to design scheduling algorithms that can best meet the standards. Finding the best way to implement the WiMAX standards through designing efficient scheduler algorithms is a very important component in wireless systems and the scheduling period presents the most common challenging issue in terms of throughput and time delay. The aim of the research presented in this thesis was to design and develop an efficient scheduling algorithm to provide the QoS support for real-time and non-real-time services with the WiMAX Network. This was achieved by combining a portfolio of algorithms, which will control and update transmission with the required algorithm by the various portfolios for supporting QoS such as; the guarantee of a maximum throughput for real-time and non-real-time traffic. Two algorithms were designed in this process and will be discussed in this thesis: Fixed Portfolio Algorithms and Portfolio Peak Algorithm. In order to evaluate the proposed algorithms and test their efficiency for IEEE 802.16 networks, the authors simulated the algorithms in the NS2 simulator. Evaluation of the proposed Portfolio algorithms was carried out through comparing its performance with those of the conventional algorithms. On the other hand, the proposed Portfolio scheduling algorithm was evaluated by comparing its performance in terms of throughput, delay, and jitter. The simulation results suggest that the Fixed Portfolio Algorithms and the Portfolio Peak Algorithm achieve higher performance in terms of throughput than all other algorithms. Keywords: WiMAX, IEEE802.16, QoS, Scheduling Algorithms, Fixed Portfolio Algorithms, and Portfolio Peak Algorithms.The Mobile WiMAX IEEE 802.16 standards ensure provision of last mile wireless access, variable and high data rate, point to multi-point communication, large frequency range and QoS (Quality of Service) for various types of applications. The WiMAX standards are published by the Institute of Electric and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and specify the standards of services and transmissions. However, the way how to run these services and when the transmission should be started are not specified in the IEEE standards and it is up to computer scientists to design scheduling algorithms that can best meet the standards. Finding the best way to implement the WiMAX standards through designing efficient scheduler algorithms is a very important component in wireless systems and the scheduling period presents the most common challenging issue in terms of throughput and time delay. The aim of the research presented in this thesis was to design and develop an efficient scheduling algorithm to provide the QoS support for real-time and non-real-time services with the WiMAX Network. This was achieved by combining a portfolio of algorithms, which will control and update transmission with the required algorithm by the various portfolios for supporting QoS such as; the guarantee of a maximum throughput for real-time and non-real-time traffic. Two algorithms were designed in this process and will be discussed in this thesis: Fixed Portfolio Algorithms and Portfolio Peak Algorithm. In order to evaluate the proposed algorithms and test their efficiency for IEEE 802.16 networks, the authors simulated the algorithms in the NS2 simulator. Evaluation of the proposed Portfolio algorithms was carried out through comparing its performance with those of the conventional algorithms. On the other hand, the proposed Portfolio scheduling algorithm was evaluated by comparing its performance in terms of throughput, delay, and jitter. The simulation results suggest that the Fixed Portfolio Algorithms and the Portfolio Peak Algorithm achieve higher performance in terms of throughput than all other algorithms. Keywords: WiMAX, IEEE802.16, QoS, Scheduling Algorithms, Fixed Portfolio Algorithms, and Portfolio Peak Algorithms

Enhancing Scheduling for IEEE 802.16 Networks

The IEEE 802.16 standard defines the specifications of the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) technology as a Broadband Wireless Access network. This type of networks supports multiservice traffic (data, voice and video) and guarantees the Quality of Service at the MAC layer level. However, the IEEE 802.16 standard specifies three QoS components that reside in the MAC layer such as scheduler and call admission control. Although, the IEEE 802.16 defined the function of each component but left the implementation open for vendors and operators. In this thesis, we aim to design two new scheduling algorithms that guarantee QoS in WiMAX network. The new algorithms will consider application traffic requirements, channel condition states and compliant with the standard. The first algorithm is Deadline maximum Signal to Interference Ratio (DmSIR) scheduling algorithm and it is a modified version from maximum Signal to Interference Ratio (mSIR) scheduling algorithm. The DmSIR scheduling algorithm makes scheduling decision based on two factors: the packets deadline and signal to noise ratio. The second algorithm which we named the Priority based Deficit Round Robin (PbDRR) solves the problem of long delay for non real-time traffic with low signal to noise ratio as well as giving priority to real-time traffic that approach to deadline. The PbDRR scheduling algorithm makes scheduling decision based on three factors: packets deadline, signal to noise ratio and backlog traffic. We used the NS2 network simulation to evaluate the performance of the new algorithms and three performance metrics are evaluated for this purpose. The simulation results for DmSIR shows enhancement in the performance compared to the mSIR scheduling algorithm but the non real-time traffic with low signal to noise ratio suffers from long delay. On the other hand, the simulation results for the PbDRR scheduling algorithm shows better performance than the DmSIR and Deficit Round Robin + Fragmentation (DRR+F) scheduling algorithms

An improved resource allocation scheme for WiMAX using channel information

In recent years, tremendous progress has been made in wireless communication systems to provide wireless coverage to end users at different data rates. WiMAX technology provides wireless broadband access over an extended coverage area in both fixed and mobility environments. Most of the existing resource allocation schemes allocate resources based on respective service class of the incoming users’ requests. However, due to variation in channel conditions, user mobility and diverse resource requirements QoS based resource allocation either results in over or under utilization of allocated resources. Therefore, resource allocation is a challenging task in WiMAX. This research proposes an improved resource management mechanism that performs resource allocation by taking into consideration not only the user service class but also the respective channel status. Based on these two parameters, this research aims to achieve improved resource allocation in terms of resource utilization, fairness and network throughput. First, a Channel Based Resource Allocation scheme is introduced where priority in resource allocation is given to users’ requests with relatively higher service classes and better channel status. To maintain fairness in resource allocation process, a Fair Resource Allocation Based Service mechanism is developed where priority is given to users’ requests having less additional resources demand. Finally, to improve throughput of the network, a Channel Based Throughput Improvement approach is proposed which dynamically selects a threshold level of channel gain based on individual channel gain of users. During resource allocation process, users above the threshold level are selected for resource allocation such that priority is given to users with high channel gain. Different simulation scenario results reveal an overall improved resource utilization from 87% to 91% and the throughput improves up to 15% when compared to existing schemes. In conclusion the performance of resource utilization is improved if channel status is considered as an input parameter

Link group management for carrier-grade wireless mesh networks

Proceedings of: 2010 Future Network & Mobile Summit, 16-18 June 2010, Florence, ItalyTheir distributed nature makes mesh networks easy to deploy and robust against node and link failures. However, distributing functionality adds high signalling overhead and delays. Forming resource clusters in wireless mesh networks is a wellknown concept to alleviate these issues. This article describes a link group system for carrier-grade wireless mesh networks that provides absolute QoS guarantees. In order to support heterogeneous wireless mesh networks, the system interface of this link group system is implemented as a technology independent interface. Performance evaluations show a good fairness without requiring per-flow queuing, a good overall system performance, and small packet delays in multi-hop setups, which makes these link groups an important component of carrier-grade wireless mesh networksEuropean Community's Seventh Framework ProgramPublicad

Design and analysis of MAC protocols for wireless networks

During the last few years, wireless networking has attracted much of the research and industry interest. In addition, almost all current wireless devices are based on the IEEE 802.11 and IEEE 802.16 standards for the local and metropolitan area networks (LAN/MAN) respectively. Both of these standards define the medium access control layer (MAC) and physical layer (PHY) parts of a wireless user. In a wireless network, the MAC protocol plays a significant role in determining the performance of the whole network and individual users. Accordingly, many challenges are addressed by research to improve the performance of MAC operations in IEEE 802.11 and IEEE 802.16 standards. Such performance is measured using different metrics like the throughput, fairness, delay, utilization, and drop rate. We propose new protocols and solutions to enhance the performance of an IEEE 802.11 WLAN (wireless LAN) network, and to enhance the utilization of an IEEE 802.16e WMAN (wireless MAN). First, we propose a new protocol called HDCF (High-performance Distributed Coordination Function), to address the problem of wasted time, or idle slots and collided frames, in contention resolution of the IEEE 802.11 DCF. Second, we propose a simple protocol that enhances the performance of DCF in the existence of the hidden terminal problem. Opposite to other approaches, the proposed protocol attempts to benefit from the hidden terminal problem. Third, we propose two variants of a simple though effective distributed scheme, called NZ-ACK (Non Zero-Acknowledgement), to address the effects of coexisting IEEE 802.11e EDCA and IEEE 802.11 DCF devices. Finally, we investigate encouraging ertPS (enhanced real time Polling Service) connections, in an IEEE 802.16e, network to benefit from contention, and we aim at improving the network performance without violating any delay requirements of voice applications