Cross-Layer Uplink Scheduler for the IEEE 802.16 Standard

The IEEE 802.16 standard for broadband wireless access is a low cost solution for Internetaccess in metropolitan and rural areas. Although it defines five service levels to support real-time and bandwidth demanding applications, scheduling mechanisms are not specified in the standard. Due to the wireless channel variability, scheduling mechanisms widely studied for wired networks are not suitable for IEEE 802.16 networks. This paper proposes an uplink cross-layer scheduler which makes bandwidth allocation decisions based on information about the channel quality and on the Quality of Service requirements of each connection. Simulation results show that the proposed scheduler improves the network performance when compared with a scheduler which does not take into account the channel quality.