Advanced Mechanisms for Sleep Mode Optimization of VoIP Traffic over IEEE 802.16m

Since mobile devices are equipped with limited battery power, it is essential to have efficient power management mechanisms in mobile broadband networks such as mobile WiMAX that enable always on connectivity and provide high throughputs. In recent times Voice over IP (VoIP) has emerged as an important and dominant application in broadband mobile networks such as WiMAX. VoIP traffic is uniquely characterized by small packets sent regularly at periodic intervals and are bound by strict latency requirements for satisfactory user experience. This paper presents novel mechanisms to achieve enhanced power saving during a VoIP session by exploiting unique characteristics of VoIP traffic in next generation mobile WiMAX networks based on IEEE 802.16m standard. The analytical model and simulation results indicate that proposed methods reduce the average power consumption during a VoIP call by up to 70% compared to the existing IEEE 802.16m draft specifications. Moreover, the simulation results closely match our proposed analytical model.