An Opportunistic DRR (O-DRR) Uplink Scheduling Scheme for IEEE 802.16-based Broadband Wireless Networks

We present a novel scheme for uplink scheduling in WiMax networks that attempts to balance worst-case fairness in bandwidth allocation with the delay requirements of traffic, while taking the varying nature of the wireless channel into account. We assume a polling-based mode of operation at the base station ( ), and provide a method of obtaining an optimal polling interval at which the should poll the subscriber stations to ensure that the delay requirements of traffic are met, while the relative unfairness in bandwidth allocation remains bounded. We devise an opportunistic deficit round robin (O-DRR) scheme that schedules sessions by taking into account the variations in the wireless channel, and demonstrate that there exists a range of values of the polling interval over which our proposed scheduler is fair (as measured by Jain’s fairness index), thus giving a service provider a choice of balancing fairness with delay, and pricing its services accordingly.