A learning automata-based uplink scheduler for supporting real-time multimedia interactive traffic in IEEE 802.16 WiMAX networks

摘要

Worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) is one of the most challenging forthcoming technologies providing broadband wireless access (BWA) which promises its users high Quality of Service (QoS) for supporting interactive real-time multimedia services. One of the most important enablers for this is the MAC layer scheduling, i.e., channel access. For WiMAX, no scheduling algorithm has been standardized and has been left open for the vendors to implement as per their own needs, thereby facilitating the differentiation between their products. Some of the most important metrics for an efficient scheduling algorithm are throughput, delay, jitter (time variation of delay), and packet loss. In this paper, we propose a learning automata (LA)-based scheduling algorithm for WiMAX uplink real-time multimedia interactive traffic in a point to multipoint (PMP) architecture. The main objective of the work presented in the paper is to present the design of an efficient algorithm for providing QoS to real-time uplink traffic. The results of simulation based performance evaluation studies show that the proposed algorithm results in an increase of throughput and decrease in delay and packet loss for real-time service flows as compared to other non-real-time traffic.