Enabling "Quality of Service" in IEEE802.16 networks for distributed mesh topologies

Almost all deployed implementations of the IEEE802.16 standard (also known as WiMAX) employ the Point to Multipoint (PMP) topology. With such a topology Quality of Service (QoS) can be easily achieved, but the coverage area is limited. The other architectural topology is the Mesh Mode which is able to provide a larger coverage area, but cannot support the QoS required. This paper addresses the issue of supporting QoS for WiMAX when used in a Mesh Mode configuration. Doing so will motivate WiMAX vendors to support the Mesh Mode configuration for their WiMAX systems more cost-effectively. Our proposed approach makes use of an efficient Bandwidth Manager, a Packet Scheduler and an Admission Control mechanism. The Bandwidth Manager utilizes the 'Deficit Round Robin' algorithm, and the Packet Scheduler uses a 'Self-Clocked Fair Queuing' scheduling algorithm. The performance results obtained with the proposed scheme demonstrate that QoS support is achievable in this mode.