Virtual Direct Link Access for IEEE 802.16 Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks (WMANs)

Communication technology of broadband wireless access (BWA) system designed for wireless metropolitan area networks (WMANs) has become matured. The IEEE 802.16 standard has the potential to be the global standard for WMANs. In this paper, we first point out the inefficient data transmission in IEEE 802.16 point-to-multipoint network and then propose the virtual direct link access (VDLA) scheme which is based on smart scheduling strategy and location reporting protocol. The VDLA allows pairs of subscriber stations to communicate directly without passing through the base station. Simulation results show that the IEEE 802.16 WMANs with VDLA achieves higher average network throughout when handling Intranet traffic.