IEEE 802.16 Packet Scheduling with Traffic Prioritization and Cross-Layer Optimization

Abstract

WiMAX is emerging as a broadband wireless access technology to satisfy end user expectations, containing a new set of advantages in terms of throughput, coverage and QoS support at the MAC level which allows convergence of several different types of applications and services. For that reason, the allocation of resources or scheduling becomes of greater importance. This paper focuses on a cross-layer scheduling optimization solution for IEEE 802.16. The relevant features of the proposed packet scheduling optimization scheme consist: of prioritization of users within the same traffic class, allowing for example to an operator, differentiated treatment among users, for instance distinguishing between premium or gold users and silver users; and also cross layer optimization which implies radio resource optimization and a more effective scheduler decision. Simulation scenarios are presented to demonstrate how the scheduling solution allocates resources through particular WiMAX MAC layer implementation in the NS-2 simulator. Results show that the new mechanism implementation results in an improvement to the simple Round Robin fashion present in the original simulation model, being able to increase differentiation between different classes and decrease packets delay, due to its cross-layer processing and traffic prioritization.