A CDMA scheduling protocol based on ants algorithm for wireless multimedia networks

Future mobile communication systems are widely envisioned to support multimedia packets. In this paper, a multimedia access control protocol based on the ants algorithm with BER scheduling is proposed, where packets are classified according to their BER values and those with the same class queue according to their priorities. Packets transmitted in the next frame are selected from the head of each queue by using the ants algorithm. The scheduler assigns the selected packets with equal or similar BER requirements in the same slots. A tradeoff between increasing throughput and limiting delay and packet loss can be achieved. The conventional power control scheme can be used with one power level for each slot. Simulations demonstrate benefits in terms of average throughput, delay and packet loss.