Delivering improved QoS and cell throughput in UMTS based HSDPA networks

One of the main challenges in cellular wireless data networks is to meet the stringent quality of service (QoS) requirements of voice over IP (VoIP) and video streaming traffic whilst attaining high total cell throughput. In this paper, a novel two layered scheduling approach that addresses this challenge in a UMTS based HSDPA network is presented. The first layer carries out resource reservation for different traffic classes while the second layer dequeues packets on the basis of the reported channel quality indicator value and buffer occupancy. Simulation results show that the algorithm has low latency and jitter for VoIP services, whilst achieving better total cell throughput and fairness properties in comparison to several other well known scheduling algorithms. The performance of the algorithm for video streaming has also been evaluated in terms of peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR).