Analysis of IEEE 802.16 Mesh Mode Scheduler Performance

The IEEE 802.16 protocol for wireless broadband access (wirelessMAN) has been standardized recently. In order to improve network coverage and scalability, mesh mode is supported in 802.16. In the mesh mode, all nodes are organized in an ad hoc fashion and use a pseudo-random function to compete for their transmission opportunities based on the scheduling information in the two-hop neighborhood. In this paper, we develop a stochastic model for the distributed mesh mode scheduler. With this model, we analyze the scheduler performance under various conditions, and the analytical results match very well with the ns-2 simulation results. The analytical model developed in this paper is instrumental in optimizing the IEEE 802.16 mesh network performance. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first one theoretically investigating the IEEE 802.16 mesh mode scheduling performance