A QoE-based scheduling solution for UGS and rtPS service classes in WiMAX network

Abstract

In response to the growing demand of broadband wireless access, the WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Acces) technology has emerged as an alternative to the wired broadband access solutions. It provides an Internet connection to broadband coverage area of several kilometers in radius and incorporate several quality of service (QoS) mechanisms at the Media Access Control (MAC) level for guaranteed services like data, voice and video. Unlike DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) or other wired technology, WiMAX uses radio waves and can provide Point-to-Multipoint (PMP) and mesh modes. In parallel, it can be noticed that in contrast of the usual quality evaluation approaches, nowadays, current researches focus on the user perceived quality, the available scheduling approaches take into account the QoS and other parameters, but do not consider the Quality of Experience (QoE). In this paper, we propose a QoE-based scheduling solution in WiMAX network in order to control the packet transmission rate so as to match with the minimum subjective rate requirements of each connection, this makes the scheduling based on the use of QoE metrics. The target of this improvement is to schedule traffic of the Unsolicited Grant Service (UGS) and the Real-Time Polling Service (rtPS) service classes. Simulation results show that by applying various levels of mean opinion score (MOS) the QoE provided to the users is improved in term of throughput, jitter, packet loss rate and delay.