Downlink scheduling for multimedia multicast/broadcast over mobile wimax: connection-oriented multistate adaptation - [Service-oriented broadband wireless network architecture]

With its comprehensive QoS support and ubiquitous coverage, the mobile WiMAX network offers promising opportunities for unwiring the last mile connectivity to Internet. However, stringent QoS demands of multimedia applications entail studies on service-oriented radio resource management. This article systematically examines the design issues and the state of the art of multimedia downlink scheduling in the multicast/broadcast-based WiMAX system. We propose a viable end-to-end framework, connection-oriented multistate adaptation, by considering cross-layer adaptations in source coding, queue prioritization, flow queuing, and scheduling. Its performance is confirmed by simulations on important metrics, showing that the framework can effectively accommodate heterogeneity in link variations, queue fluctuations, and reception diversities.