Design of zone-based bandwidth management scheme in IEEE 802.16 multi-hop relay networks

IEEE 802.16 Wireless Network technology is a hot research issue in recent years. It provides wider coverage of radio and higher speed wireless access, and Quality-of-Service plays an important part in the standard. For mobile multi-hop wireless network, IEEE 802.16j/MR network not only can supply large area wireless deployment, but also can provide high quality network service to mobile users. Although Mobile QoS supporting has been extensively investigated, Mobile QoS supporting in the IEEE 802.16-MR network is relatively unexplored. In this article, the probability of a mobile user who visits a Relay Station (RS) is known beforehand. With the visiting probability at each RS and the system specified size of the range for bandwidth allocation, Base Station (BS) can calculate the required bandwidth to meet the mobile user's demand and allocate appropriate bandwidth for a mobile user roaming in the range of the bandwidth allocation. The range of bandwidth allocation for mobile users is called the Zone in this article, which includes the user's current RS and the nearby RSs. The proposed scheme is therefore called Zone-based bandwidth management scheme. The simulation results demonstrate that Zone-based bandwidth management scheme can reduce QoS degradation and bandwidth re-allocation overhead.