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

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.