Novel user centric, game theory based bandwidth allocation mechanism in WiMAX

Abstract

AbstractBandwidth allocation plays a crucial role in ensuring overall quality of service in WiMAX. WiMAX supports non-contention based bandwidth allocation mechanism, where the responsibility of bandwidth allocation lies with the base station. In this paper, a novel user- centric, Game Theory-based bandwidth allocation algorithm is proposed. The Users/Mobile Station shall be grouped in pairs and bandwidth allocation is performed alternately between the two users of a group. In any given frame only one user from a pair is allocated bandwidth. The bandwidth thus allocated shall satisfy the requirements of the user/mobile station for two consecutive frames. Since, in any given frame, only one user/MS is allocated the bandwidth, the proposed algorithm reduces the frame overhead, thereby saving precious bandwidth that can be utilized to improve throughput. Simulation results show a 50% decrease in the uplink frame overhead and about 8% improvement in the uplink throughput per user/mobile station.