Context-Aware Uplink Resource Allocation Using Request Header Information for ertPS Services in IEEE 802.16e Networks

In this paper, we propose a simple and effective way to improve the quality of service (QoS) of uplink resource allocation for the extended-real-time polling service (ertPS) in IEEE 802.16e broadband wireless networks. The primitive ertPS algorithm determines the amount of resources allocated to a given subscriber station only according to the requested volume in current polling cycles regardless of the knowledge of demand trend. This trend is continuously increasing or declining, which may be incomplete to truly reflect reasonable resource allocation for subscriber stations in different demand tendencies. To cope with this problem, we developed a context-aware ertPS algorithm which gathers statistics on the numbers of request headers of medium access control layer management messages among various subscriber stations, and thus uses the statistical information to enable a dynamic allocation of additional uplink resources to subscriber stations with continuously increasing bandwidth demands. The simulation results show that in comparison with the original ertPS algorithm, the proposed context-aware resource allocation scheme is effective to increase the data throughput as well as to decrease the packet loss rate and packet delay so that the user-perceived QoS can be improved.