Study of OPNET and Performance Evaluation of WiMAX Network under Various Path Loss Models and Terrain Conditions in OPNET

With various wireless technologies coming up, performance of the wireless networks has become a concern. Mobile WiMAX is expected to be the wireless technology of the next generation as it supports vehicular mobility with broad coverage area. Among various other parameters which affect network performance, the terrain feature on which the network is deployed and the pathloss model affects the network performance substantially. Air being the communicating medium in wireless networks, any hindrance on the communication path like buildings, trees, etc., affects the wireless signal propagation. Hence, prior network deployment, analysis of the terrain is essential. Voice over IP is expected to be the communication medium of the next generation and File Transfer Protocol is the most popular data transfer protocol. Hence, our target is to study the behaviour of various propagation models in WiMAX network with respect to path loss, throughput and delay for various terrain models with voice and FTP applications. OPNET Modeler provides comprehensive development environment and provides a real life simulation environment and hence is chosen to simulate the networks.