Comparative Analysis of Scheduling Algorithms in IEEE 802.16 WiMAX

Abstract

With the advancements in technology, need for Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) increase due to user mobility and requirement to access data all the time. The best available quality of experience is provided by IEEE 802.16 WiMAX networks. For guaranteed provision of services like voice, video and data IEEE 802.16 WiMAX include several Quality of Service (QoS) options on Media Access Control (MAC) layer. In this paper, a comparative analysis of different scheduling algorithms through simulation is provided with the help of buffer utilization and queuing delay. Four data traffic types selected in this simulation scenario and OPNET Modeler has been used to simulate different network scenarios for WiMAX scheduling. Our simulation results show that the MDRR performs best for all types of data traffic. However, other scheduling algorithms might perform well for high priority data traffic but not for the low priority due to unfairness issues.