Adaptive QoS for wireless multimedia networks using power control and smart antennas

This paper addresses the problem of adaptive quality-of-service (QoS) for mobile multimedia services under a power controlled wireless network using smart antennas. Given the nature of multimedia, we chose the signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio (SINR) of each user's channel as the QoS index. We direct our attention toward two problems. The first is to increase the SINR levels for multimedia users as much as the system can provide for, under channel fading and interference conditions. Different users have distinct desired SINR levels according to their requested service types; our algorithm uses an iterative method to drive the SINR levels as close as possible to those desired levels. The SINR levels are improved without deteriorating quality for other types of users. Simulations show a significant increase in the average SINR levels for multimedia users. The second problem considered is how to initiate new users into the network speedily by using lower complexity algorithms that yield reliable results. Simulations show that our fast activation scheme can substantially reduce the time for activating new users into the system.