Cross-Layer Design Based On IEEE 802.16 Mesh Network

Wireless Mesh Network (WMN), a new type of broadband wireless access systems, is a multi-hop wireless network connecting routers and terminal devices with wireless link. With the characteristics of high rate and high capacity, WMN is treated as a good alternative to solve the last mile related problem. IEEE 802.16 standard provides a networking model for multi-hop mesh, which can be deployed with high speed in wide area wireless network. However, 802.16 mesh network also needs to face the problems caused by deploying centralized scheduling mechanisms which limits the scalability of network, and the troublesome QoS guarantee problems caused by the distributed mechanisms.In this paper, we studied the definition, architecture, characteristics and advantages of the WMN as well as the key technologies and hot research issues. Focusing on the QoS guarantee, we proposed a cross-layer design and optimization mechanism for 802.16 mesh network. In our scheme, we added cross-layer control module in both Mesh BS and Mesh SS based on the standard to provide the mutual information and control mechanism. With our mechanism, we can provide QoS guarantee, especially for the real time services. When a new Mesh SS needs to access the network, priority based access control mechanism is used to construct the network architecture. Single node based path selection scheme is executed with the information provided by the cross-layer control module and improves the network scalability.We analyzed the proposed cross-layer design and optimization mechanism theoretically and with OPNET simulation. The performance evaluation results show that the proposed mechanism achieves significant progress in delay, system throughput and packet loss rate over the basic mechanism in 802.16 mesh network.