QoS‐aware fair packet scheduling in IEEE 802.16 wireless mesh networks

Abstract

Abstract In this paper, we address the problem of heterogeneous quality‐of‐service (QoS) provisioning in IEEE 802.16‐based wireless mesh networks. Our objective is to provide a novel service differentiation scheme based on distributed scheduling in the IEEE 802.16‐based mesh mode, thereby offering QoS guarantees. We first devise a novel scheme for the traffic class differentiation, which can be implemented at the medium access control layer. We then present a QoS‐aware fair packet scheduling (QFPS) algorithm to fulfill the QoS provisioning. With QFPS, a traffic flow with urgent QoS demand is guaranteed to be given priority in wireless resource allocation over those ones with mild QoS requirements. A shorter end‐to‐end delay is therefore expected to be offered for the traffic flows with time‐urgent requirements. Moreover, we propose a new fairness model among different traffic flows traversing the same node. All traffic flows passing through a node are served by the Deficit Round‐Robin scheduling algorithm to achieve fairness within the same priority group. The experimental results of the QFPS demonstrate that various traffic flows are provided with a differentiated service that offers QoS guarantees. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.