Fair scheduling for real-time multimedia support in IEEE 802.16 wireless access networks

Successful deployment of Broadband Wireless Access Networks such as WiMAX (IEEE 802.16) will be contingent on provisions for supporting multimedia traffic. In this paper, we review the quality of service features of access networks such as the 802.16 standard, and identify algorithms and schemes that are needed for supporting multimedia traffic in such networks. The 802.16 standard only specifies the features that should be implemented and leaves the design of a quality of service solution to developers. This includes the design of a mandatory scheduling framework. We present a comprehensive multimedia support framework based on the standard features. The framework specifies the architectures for the base station and the subscriber station, and contributes a number of algorithms for different service provisioning objectives. We use the concept of virtual packets to provide fair packet based centralized scheduling of uplink and downlink packets. The presented solution also provides algorithms for temporal and throughput fair scheduling in multirate physical layer of the 802.16 networks. An important part of the presented design is a multi-class fair scheduling scheme which is proposed for providing better delay performance for real time applications, while maintaining slightly longer term fairness.