A Heuristic Cross-Layer Mechanism for Real-Time Traffic in IEEE 802.16 Networks

In this paper we propose and study a cross-layer mechanism that can improve real-time QoS provisioning over IEEE 802.16 metropolitan area networks. This mechanism utilizes information provided by the Physical and MAC layers and using a heuristic algorithm it derives new operational parameters for the Physical and Application layers, which can improve the performance of real-time applications. The main idea is to coordinate the adaptive modulation capability of the Physical layer and the multi-rate data-encoding capability of modern real-time applications in order to avoid inefficiencies caused by their independent operation. Simulations show that the proposed mechanism can assist 802.16 systems better adapt to frequent channel and traffic changes, leading to considerably reduced packet loss rates, especially under heavy traffic conditions.