Internet Traffic Performance in IEEE 802.16 Networks

The existing wireless technologies are struggling to satisfy the enormous growth of demand on broadband wireless access anywhere and anytime. The IEEE 802.16 standard family has been developed recently, introducing a new air interface for fixed and mobile Broadband Wireless Access. This paper evaluates the performance of the most commonly used Internet applications, such as web browsing, ftp downloading, real-time streaming and email exchange in an IEEE 802.16 based point to multipoint system. The influence of user number, quality of wireless channels and intensity of the subscriber's requirements is intensively evaluated using network simulator ns2. Challenges of Quality of Service establishment in IEEE 802.16 based networks are also investigated in the paper.