An End-to-End QoS Assurance Method in IEEE 802.16 Mesh Networks

IEEE 802.16 supports both single-hop and multi-hop mesh modes. It defines several traffic and service categories and offers differentiated quality of service (QoS) through scheduling algorithms. In IEEE 802.16, a three-way handshaking mechanism is given to reserve the slots hop-by-hop for mesh networks, which is called Hop-by-hop Bandwidth Reservation Protocol (HBRP). However, HBRP can not assure the End-to-End QoS, and can not optimally schedule the idle slots. In this paper, we provide a QoS assurance method in IEEE 802.16 Mesh networks, named End-to-End Bandwidth Reservation Protocol (EBRP). EBRP includes End-to-End optimal bandwidth calculation and End-to-End resource reservation. The performance analysis shows that the EBRP is more effective than HBRP in the existing Mesh networks.