Comparative assessment of WiMAX scheduler in fixed and mobile WiMAX networks for VoIP using QualNet

The IEEE 802.16 standard, defining the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) for Metropolitan Area Network (MAN). The IEEE 802.16 standard, includes specification for the Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical (PHY) layers, is designed to serve all kinds of traffic. The standard is equipped with signaling and bandwidth allocation algorithms that can accommodate many connections with a variety of QoS requirements at one Subscriber Station (SS). Popularity of Voice over IP (VoIP) application such as Skype, Google Talk and MSN Messenger is making VoIP over WiMAX an attractive market and a driving force for both carriers and equipment suppliers. In this paper Point-To-Multipoint (PMP) mode of WiMAX scenarios package is evaluated using the Qualnet simulation tool. A detailed simulation study was carried out for some scheduling algorithms such as WFQ, Round Robin, WRR and Strict Priority, analyzing and evaluating the performance of each scheduler to support UGS, RTPS and ERTPS types of QoS class for VoIP application. Performance metrics reported in this work are average throughput and average end-to-end delay. In addition, this paper also shows that VoIP application can be best served with ERTPS QoS class.