Performance Analysis of an Efficient Packet-Based IEEE 802.16 MAC Supporting Adaptive Modulation and Coding

The challenge for broadband fixed wireless access (BFWA) systems, which represent an attractive solution for broadband access in the last mile and for wireless backhauling applications in the "middle mile", lies in providing high data rates and quality of service (QoS). Such requirements mainly derive from the need to provide new bandwidth consuming multimedia services and applications, efficient handling of IP traffic, effective use of the limited radio spectrum and a greater backhaul capacity to support the increased number of users per cell site. IEEE 802.16 family of standards and its associated consortium WiMAX are gaining more and more interest in the telecommunication areas as broadband fixed wireless access solution with possible extension in nomadic and mobile area. Its main leverages are an efficient handling of IP traffic, the support of channel adaptivity and advanced QoS management. This paper aims at defining a new packet-based scheduling strategy for an IEEE 802.16 system supporting variable length MAC protocol data units (PDUs) and adaptive coding and modulation while fulfilling QoS requirements. A performance analysis of the proposed scheduler is presented and discussed in terms of packet transfer delay, MAC overhead and average throughput.