Performance evaluation of reservation medium access control in IEEE 802.16 networks

The IEEE 802.16 technology is increasingly being considered for fixed and mobile voice and high speed data access. The success of IEEE 802.16 in a mobile or mesh network environment is contingent on its ability to embrace and sustain dynamic traffic conditions. To this end, we study the reservation multiple access protocol of the IEEE 802.16 standard to understand the protocol performance and potentials. Basically for its primary role in controlling the protocol performance, we emphasize the design of the contention-based reservation period. We present an analytical model for computing the contention delay, data transmission delay, and throughput resulting from different contention period allocations under dynamic traffic conditions. We illustrate the performance compromises and remedies with respect to the contention period allocation. Based on the analytical model and performance evaluation results, we institute a research base to enhance the performance of the reservation multiple access protocol in IEEE 802.16 standard