Handover of relay stations for load balancing in IEEE 802.16

The load balancing in wireless networks is a very effective way for maximization of a system throughput. The paper proposes a new load balancing scheme in order to avoid a congestion of base stations (BSs) in IEEE 802.16 standards. While in many technical studies the load balancing is achieved by a handover (HO) of mobile stations (MSs), the novelty of our approach lies in the utilization of the HO of relay stations (RSs). Hence, the algorithm enabling load balancing via RSs is developed and optimized. Furthermore, the paper contemplates the implementation of the proposed mechanism to networks based on IEEE 802.16 standards. The performance of the mechanism is evaluated in terms of achieved system throughput and signaling overhead both at the air interface and over the wired backbone. The obtained results indicate that the load balancing mechanism through the HO of RSs outperforms existing load balancing mechanisms exploiting conventional HO of MSs. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Queue-aware uplink bandwidth allocation and rate control for polling service in IEEE 802.16 broadband wireless networks

IEEE 802.16 standard defines the air interface specifications for broadband access in wireless metropolitan area networks. Although the medium access control signaling has been well-defined in the IEEE 802.16 specifications, resource management and scheduling, which are crucial components to guarantee quality of service performances, still remain as open issues. In this paper, we propose adaptive queue-aware uplink bandwidth allocation and rate control mechanisms in a subscriber station for polling service in IEEE 802.16 broadband wireless networks. While the bandwidth allocation mechanism adaptively allocates bandwidth for polling service in the presence of higher priority unsolicited grant service, the rate control mechanism dynamically limits the transmission rate for the connections under polling service. Both of these schemes exploit the queue status information to guarantee the desired quality of service (QoS) performance for polling service. We present a queuing analytical framework to analyze the proposed resource management model from which various performance measures for polling service in both steady and transient states can be obtained. We also analyze the performance of best-effort service in the presence of unsolicited grant service and polling service. The proposed analytical model would be useful for performance evaluation and engineering of radio resource management alternatives in a subscriber station so that the desired quality of service performances for polling service can be achieved. Analytical results are validated by simulations and typical numerical results are presented.     

Integration of IEEE 802.11 WLANs with IEEE 802.16-based multihop infrastructure mesh/relay networks: A game-theoretic approach to radio resource management

One of the promising applications of IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX)-based wireless mesh/relay networks is to provide infrastructure/backhaul support for IEEE 802.11-based mobile hotspots. In this article we present an architecture for integrating IEEE 802.11 WLANs with IEEE 802.16-based multihop wireless mesh infrastructure to relay WLAN traffic to the Internet. The major research issues in this integrated architecture are outlined and related work is reviewed. A game-theoretic model is developed for radio resource management in this integrated network architecture. In particular, a multiplayer bargaining game formulation is used for fair bandwidth allocation and optimal admission control of different types of connections (e.g., WLAN connections, relay connections, and connections from standalone subscriber stations) in an IEEE 802.16 base station/mesh router. Both connection-level and inconnection-level performances for this bandwidth management and admission control framework are presented     

WiMAX throughput evaluation of conventional relaying

The paper analyses performance of IEEE 802.16 standard, also known as WiMAX, when relay stations are introduced. Thanks to this feature, coverage area and throughput of the system may be significantly enhanced. The article defines the increase of system capacity of the relay based cell deployment compared to a conventional single hop deployment of the same area size. Further, the parameters that have main impact on the system with relays and its capacity are determined.     

An evolved cellular system architecture incorporating relay stations - [WiMAX update]

Shrinking cell sizes, primarily a result of keeping up with the increasing demand for higher data rates, are stretching thin the notion of our traditional cellular system architecture. More and more base stations are serving smaller and smaller areas (cells) which in effect is driving up deployment costs. The option of deploying relay stations is increasingly beginning to look like a solution to the problem of providing a cost-effective way to extend the coverage and capacity in a cellular network. A relay station can be used to extend the point-to-multipoint link between the base station and mobile stations. Relay stations connect to the base stations without wires and are expected to be deployed to cover smaller geographic areas. Primarily the deployment costs but also the equipment costs are expected to be substantially lower than those of base stations. In this article we first introduce the relay station and discuss the place it is likely to carve out for itself in the traditional cellular architecture. We highlight the important economic and performance benefits relay stations could potentially offer, and outline a few scenarios where relays are likely to be deployed in the beginning. The multihop relay standard developed by the IEEE 802.16 working group is then used as a basis to provide an overview of the relay-enhanced cellular architecture and the key choices that can be made in developing relay support within a cellular system ? a precursor to what can be expected in later releases of the Mobile WiMAX system. Finally, we discuss some future directions in the development of relay systems.     

Adaptive point-to-point communication approach for subscriber stations in broadband wireless networks

The point-to-multipoint (PMP) mode is considered the well-adopted transmission type that is supported by the IEEE 802.16 standard. The base station (BS) is served as the centralized coordinator to control and forward packets for the subscriber stations (SSs) within the network. In the case that two SSs intend to conduct packet transmission, it is required for the packets to be rerouted to the BS before arriving at the destination SS. The communication bandwidth is apparently wasted due to the rerouting processes. In this paper, an adaptive point-to-point communication (APC) approach is proposed to achieve direct communication between SSs within the PMP mode of the IEEE 802.16 standard. The BS is coordinating and arranging specific time intervals for the two SSs that are actively involved in packet transmission. Based on channel conditions among the BS and the SSs, the packet transmission operation is switched between direct communication and indirect communication in the APC approach. Both the architectural design and analytical modeling of the proposed scheme are conducted in this paper. The effectiveness of the proposed APC approach in terms of user throughput and its corresponding overhead can be observed via both the analytical and simulation results.     

Performance of packet voice transmission using IEEE 802.16 protocol

The IEEE 802.16 standard defines three types of scheduling services for supporting real-time traffic, unsolicited grant service (UGS), real-time polling service (rtPS), and extended real-time polling service (ertPS). In the UGS service, the base station (BS) offers a fixed amount of bandwidth to a subscriber station (SS) periodically, and the SS does not have to make any explicit bandwidth requests. The bandwidth allocation in the rtPS service is updated periodically in the way that the BS periodically polls the SS, which makes a bandwidth request at the specified uplink time slots and receives a bandwidth grant in the following downlink subframe. In the ertPS service, the BS keeps offering the same amount of bandwidth to the SS unless explicitly requested by the SS. The SS makes a bandwidth request only if its required transmission rate changes. In this article we study the performance of voice packet transmissions and BS resource utilization using the three types of scheduling services in IEEE 802.16-based backhaul networks, where each SS forwards packets for a number of voice connections. Our results demonstrate that while the UGS service achieves the best latency performance, the rtPS service can more efficiently utilize the BS resource and flexibly trade-off between packet transmission performance and BS resource allocation efficiency; and appropriately choosing the MAC frame size is important in both the rtPS and ertPS services to reduce packet transmission delay and loss rate     

Estimation of the efficiency of bandwidth request piggybacking to data packets in the wireless network controlled by the IEEE 802.16 protocol

A data transmission process of the centralized wireless network controlled by IEEE 802.16 protocol, in which a set of subscriber stations utilizes the common channel to transmit data to the base station, is discussed. The developed analytical model makes it possible to investigate the efficiency of upstream traffic transmission, including channel reservation using the random multiple access algorithm and packet sending with allowance for bandwidth request piggybacking onto data. The analytical estimates of packet registration and service durations are presented.     

基于中继技术的802.16j标准展望

目前各大通信设备商正在积极参与制定的802.16j标准是以中继技术为核心、以802.16e(WiMAX)标准为基础架构的新一带无线城域网标准。它的目标是通过在基站的覆盖小区内布放中继站来降低WiMAX系统的整体建设成本,并提高系统的柔韧性。中继技术是指在基站与移动台之间转发信号,通过扩大基站覆盖和增大系统容量来达到以较低代价获取系统性能提升的目的。通过系统仿真可以看出中继技术的应用有效地提升了WiMAX系统的性能。     

Relay Technologies for WiMAX and LTE-Advanced Mobile Systems

Relay technologies have been actively studied and considered in the standardization process of next-generation mobile broadband communication systems such as 3GPP LTE-Advanced, IEEE 802.16j, and IEEE 802.16m. This article first introduces and compares different relay types in LTE-Advanced and WiMAX standards. Simulation results show that relay technologies can effectively improve service coverage and system throughput. Three relay transmission schemes are then summarized and evaluated in terms of transmission efficiency under different radio channel conditions. Finally, a centralized pairing scheme and a distributed pairing scheme are developed for effective relay selection. Simulation results show that the proposed schemes can maximize the number of served UE units and the overall throughput of a cell in a realistic multiple-RS-multiple-UE scenario.     

TCP-aware bidirectional bandwidth allocation in IEEE 802.16 networks

In this paper, we propose a bidirectional bandwidth-allocation mechanism to improve TCP performance in the IEEE 802.16 broadband wireless access networks. By coupling the bandwidth allocation for uplink and downlink connections, the proposed mechanism increases the throughput of the downlink TCP flow and it enhances the efficiency of uplink bandwidth allocation for the TCP acknowledgment (ACK). According to the IEEE 802.16 standard, when serving a downlink TCP flow, the transmission of the uplink ACK, which is performed over a separate unidirectional connection, incurs additional bandwidth-request/allocation delay. Thus, it increases the round trip time of the downlink TCP flow and results in the decrease of throughput accordingly. First, we derive an analytical model to investigate the effect of the uplink bandwidth-request/allocation delay on the downlink TCP throughput. Second, we propose a simple, yet effective, bidirectional bandwidth-allocation scheme that combines proactive bandwidth allocation with piggyback bandwidth request. The proposed scheme reduces unnecessary bandwidth-request delay and the relevant signaling overhead due to proactive allocation; meanwhile, it maintains high efficiency of uplink bandwidth usage by using piggyback request. Moreover, our proposed scheme is quite simple and practical; it can be simply implemented in the base station without requiring any modification in the subscriber stations or resorting to any cross-layer signaling mechanisms. The simulation results ascertain that the proposed approach significantly increases the downlink TCP throughput and the uplink bandwidth efficiency.     

The future of WiMAX: Multihop relaying with IEEE 802.16j

Relaying and cooperation have re-emerged as important research topics in wireless communication over the past half-decade. Although multihop relaying for coverage extension in wireless networks is an old concept, it became practical only recently. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the IEEE 802.16 working group, which has devoted a task group to incorporating relay capabilities in the foundation of mobile WiMAX-IEEE 802.16e-2005. Currently, this task group is in the process of finishing IEEE 802.16j, the Multihop Relay Specification for 802.16. This amendment will be fully compatible with 802.16e-2005 mobile and subscriber stations, but a BS specific to 802.16j will be required for relays to operate. This article presents an introduction to the upcoming IEEE 802.16j amendment and provides insight about the obstacles that practical system designers face when incorporating relaying into a wireless broadband network.     

QoS-aware Two-level Dynamic Uplink Bandwidth Allocation Algorithms in IEEE 802.16j Based Vehicular Networks

Wireless communications play an important role in improving transportation environment safety and providing Internet access for vehicles. This paper proposes a QoS-aware two-level uplink dynamic bandwidth allocation (DBA) algorithm for IEEE 802.16j-based vehicular networks. IEEE 802.16j is an extension of standard IEEE 802.16 to support relay mode operation where traffics from/to subscriber stations (SS) are relayed to/from a base station (BS) via a relay station (RS). In such a vehicular network, the IEEE 802.16j BSs are installed along a highway, RSs are installed in large vehicles such as coaches, and the 802.16j interface is equipped on SSs such as individual passengers’ mobile devices within a moving coach. In the proposed DBA algorithm, a utility function, which considers characteristics of different types of services, is designed. The objective of the proposed two-level DBA algorithm is to allocate bandwidth to different types of services from BS to RSs and then from a RS to SSs with given quality of service (QoS) requirements. It aims at maximizing the utility of the overall network and minimizing the average queuing delay of the overall network. The simulation results show the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed DBA algorithm.     

Simultaneous transmission of MAP IE and data for minimizing MAC overhead in the IEEE 802.16e OFDMA systems

An advanced MAP transmission scheme for improving Media Access Control(MAC) overhead in the IEEE 802.16e systems is proposed. In the IEEE 802.16e system, when a Base Station(BS) broadcasts a MAP message, which is a control message about scheduling information, it applies a robust Modulation and Coding Scheme(MCS) level and allocates a large amount of radio resources, which induce a huge MAP overhead. Our proposed scheme utilizes piggybacked MAP IEs, in which control messages are concatenated with data packets and transmitted with the MCS level applied to data transmission. Due to the fact that the rate at which data is transmitted is generally higher than the rate at which broadcasting messages are transmitted, the proposed scheme can increase average data rate of a MAP transmission and consequently reduce the amount of resources allocated to the MAP transmission. Numerical analysis and simulations are presented to show that the MAP overhead is critical to system performance and can be improved by the proposed scheme.     

Performance Evaluation of the IEEE 802.16 MAC for QoS Support

The IEEE 802.16 is a standard for broadband wireless communication in metropolitan area networks (MAN). To meet the QoS requirements of multimedia applications, the IEEE 802.16 standard provides four different scheduling services: unsolicited grant service (UGS), real-time polling service (rtPS), non-real-time polling service (nrtPS), and Best Effort (BE). The paper is aimed at verifying, via simulation, the effectiveness of rtPS, nrtPS, and BE (but UGS) in managing traffic generated by data and multimedia sources. Performance is assessed for an IEEE 802.16 wireless system working in point-to-multipoint (PMP) mode, with frequency division duplex (FDD), and with full-duplex subscriber stations (SSs). Our results show that the performance of the system, in terms of throughput and delay, depends on several factors. These include the frame duration, the mechanisms for requesting uplink bandwidth, and the offered load partitioning, i.e., the way traffic is distributed among SSs, connections within each SS, and traffic sources within each connection. The results also highlight that the rtPS scheduling service is a very robust scheduling service for meeting the delay requirements of multimedia applications     

支持WiMAX节点灵活休眠的两阶段可靠多播策略

节能是无线网络的一个重要课题.针对IEEE 802.16e标准第2类节能模型中监听窗口长度固定会导致一些空闲移动站因得不到及时休眠而浪费能量这一不足,该文提出"两阶段可靠多播策略",让基站在第1阶段多播数据包,在第2阶段对第1阶段丢失的数据包进行网络编码并重播.该策略让移动站一旦空闲就进入休眠,实现了时延约束下数据包的可靠传递.仿真试验表明,该策略可以降低能耗,且移动站的占空比、能耗、吞吐率、丢包率等指标均优于传统的重传与确认方案.     

Selectivity function scheduler for IEEE 802.11e HCCA access mode

In this paper, we present a scheduling algorithm that enhances the performance of the standard IEEE 802.11e scheduler for the Hybrid Coordination Function Controlled Channel Access mode. The main contribution in designing the proposed scheduler is the ability to accommodate multiple streams with different levels of Quality of Service requirements concurrently running on the same station. This is achieved by dynamically calculating the Transmission Opportunities of each active traffic stream (TS) and the appropriate Service Interval of each active station. The proposed algorithm optimizes the utilization of the scarce bandwidth resources by only polling active stations. The algorithm incorporates a selectivity function to assign polling priorities to the active streams only based on their diverse requirements and their link‐attainable transmission rates. The performance of the proposed Selectivity Function Scheduler (SFS) scheme is evaluated against the standard scheduler. Simulation results show that the SFS outperforms the standard scheduler in terms of enhancing streams' throughput, reducing packet dropping ratio and maintaining high fairness amongst the admitted TS. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Performance analysis and optimization of best‐effort service in IEEE 802.16 networks

The IEEE 802.16‐based WiMAX technology has great potential for the fourth‐generation mobile networks. Some of its service classes use the contention‐based broadcast polling mechanism to request resources. In this paper, we investigate the performance experienced by these services when the network is unsaturated. In particular, we model each subscriber station as an M/G/1 queue where the service time is determined by the parameters of the network configuration and the binary exponential backoff contention resolution algorithm. We develop a fixed‐point analysis to derive analytical expressions for network throughput and packet access delay. The accuracy of the analytical model is validated by comparing it with simulation over a wide range of operating conditions. The implications of various different parameter configurations on the performance are investigated using the analytical model. Moreover, we show that the model can be degenerated to the saturated condition. The utility of both the unsaturated and saturated models is further demonstrated by finding the optimal set of parameter values that maximize the network throughput. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cellular CDMA capacity with out-of-band multihop relaying

In this paper, we consider the capacity of cellular code division multiple access (CDMA) when there is out-of-band ad hoc traffic relaying. The mobile stations (MSs) are dual-mode, having both ad hoc and cellular CDMA radios. An active MS is free to choose any available relay station (RS) within its ad hoc radio coverage area for dual-hop communication with the CDMA base station (BS). Communications between the RSs and the MSs use bandwidth which is available to the ad hoc radio and does not consume the CDMA capacity. Using this mechanism, CDIVIA interference can be reduced by dynamically selecting RSs which have more favorable CDMA link characteristics. Several relay station selection criteria are considered, namely, ad hoc relaying with low relative interference (ARRI), with best link gain (ARLG), and with shortest distance (ARSD). The relay station selection protocols are compatible with existing wireless local area network (WLAN) standards such as IEEE 802.11. An analytic model is used to compute the effects on uplink and downlink CDMA capacities when out-of-band relaying is added. The results show that very significant capacity improvements are possible by using these criteria compared with conventional CDMA with hard or soft handoff. Ad hoc relaying which dynamically tracks CDMA link quality can achieve greater capacity improvements than that using a distance-based relay station selection. Relaying, which considers both signal and interference conditions, achieves better capacity than that based on signal link quality alone.     

Network-assisted resource management for wireless data networks

We propose a framework for network-assisted radio resource management in wireless data networks. This type of radio resource management techniques offer implementation and capacity benefits compared to conventional, interference-measurement based, dynamic channel assignment (DCA) algorithms. The basic idea is to use interbase signaling to shift most of the burden of the resource allocation from the air interface to the backbone infrastructure. By exchanging channel assignment as well as other relevant information in real time through the backbone network, each base can calculate the impact of a resource assignment on the system. As a result, rapid interference measurements, which are typically needed to implement DCA schemes, are replaced by a limited amount of path loss measurements and the computation of interference conditions by the base stations. This significantly reduces the measurement and over-the-air signaling requirements, and can also provide an opportunity for a better optimization of the system performance. We focus on two specific algorithms: network-assisted least-interference-based dynamic packet assignment (NA-LI-DPA) and network-assisted dynamic packet assignment with throughput optimization (NA-DPA). NA-LI-DPA closely resembles a least-interference-based dynamic channel assignment algorithm, and NA-DPA attempts to further improve the overall system throughput. The algorithms, as defined, are appropriate for a best-effort data service, where the primary goal is to provide a higher throughput. However, it will be clear from the discussion that it is also feasible to alter the algorithms to optimize performance metrics other than throughput, e.g., to ensure a certain quality of service. We show through simulation that, for a system like enhanced general packet radio service (EGPRS) system, NA-DPA can provide a throughput that is 50% higher than random packet assignment, and 25% higher than that obtained by conventional DCA algorithms