A traffic-aware routing algorithm for IEEE 802.16j multihop relay networks

The amendment of 802.16e has been released lately by IEEE 802.16 Relay Task Group j. For the sake of improving throughput and extension of cell coverage, relay stations (RSs) are deployed in the network. Intuitively, the base station (BS) selects a path for a target subscriber station (SS) according to Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR) or the available bandwidth. However, it will lead to inefficient resource utilization and low system capacity since some RSs may have high traffic load whereas others may have redundant bandwidth. To tackle this problem, we propose a traffic-aware routing algorithm. By taking into account both resource utilization and load balance, our proposed scheme ensures that paths with heavy traffic load and long hop distance will not be selected while establishing the route. Simulations results demonstrate that, with the proposed traffic-aware routing algorithm, users are able to transmit more packets over the same period. And, not only the latency is limited in a reasonable range but also the throughput and the packet delivery ratio are enhanced.