Delay and throughput performance of IEEE 802.16 WiMax mesh networks

IEEE 802.16 can provide wireless broadband access with its support to both single-hop and multi-hop mesh modes. It defines several traffic/service categories and offers differentiated quality of service assurance through scheduling algorithms. However, it is not quite clear how well an IEEE 802.16 network could support real-time services such as video streaming and voice over Internet protocol services, especially in its mesh-mode operation. This study aims to analyse delay and throughput properties of an IEEE 802.16 mesh network for evaluating the performance of various real-time applications. The authors establish an analytical model to calculate delay and throughput of IEEE 802.16 distributed scheduling schemes. The proposed model helps to investigate how delay and throughput vary in terms of network parameters in order to optimise the system design via proper parameter configuration. Extensive simulations have been conducted to demonstrate the accuracy of the model.