A Comparative Overview IEEE 802.16e QoS Scheduling Algorithms

One of the most significant promises in today´s integrated packet-switched broadband wireless networks (such as WiMAX) is providing Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees to data, voice and video applications. These applications range from real-time applications with stringent QoS requirements, to best effort applications with no required guarantees. These applications with different QoS requirements interact with one another when they are multiplexed at the same output links. Lack of control during packet interactions will degrade network performance. Using scheduling algorithms to provide QoS, wireless networks are able to integrate applications with a wide range of traffic characteristics. We present an overview of QoS mechanism in the media access control (MAC) sublayer of WIMAX wireless networks and provide a comparative overview of scheduling schemes architecture proposed in WIMAX research literature.