Improved random channel access for OFDMA wireless networks

In this paper we propose a new random channel access protocol to reduce the channel access delay in a multichannel orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) wireless networks. In particular, we propose a two dimensional random walk through time and frequency domain slots simultaneously to reduce the random channel access delay for the IEEE 802.16e-2005 based WiMAX media access control (MAC) protocol. We prove through simulation that our proposed scheme improves upon the existing random channel access mechanism with truncated binary back-off, currently implemented in WiMAX. We demonstrated that with our proposed channel access mechanism, a mobile node with real time traffic requirements will have minimum service disruption due to the reduced delay in the initial ranging and the bandwidth request phase while changing rooms.