Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Delaware, 2009. / Principal faculty advisor: Stephan K. Bohacek, Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering. Includes bibliographical references.

The Internet has influenced our lives greatly. The way we communicate evolved with the arrival of the Internet and has continued to evolve along with the Internet. While initially being used by Academia and large organizations such as the American Department of Defense, the Internet soon became a buzzword in the average home. E-mail has changed the way companies and individuals communicate, and the World Wide Web has changed the way all Internet users access information. Lately the ability to communicate globally and instantly via text services such as MSN, audio services such as Skype, or audio and video services such as Microsoft NetMeeting has become popular. These new services consume ever-increasing amounts of bandwidth; in turn these high quality services have driven the need for high-speed always-on Internet connections to businesses and homes. The development of 802.11b and later on 802.11g wireless local area network (LAN) standards have brought wireless networking to the home user. Cheap Wi- Fi-certified hardware has enabled many people to access their high-speed Internet connections from anywhere within their home, or even on the move. The convenience that Wi-Fi has brought has resulted in the increased use of the broadband services mentioned above. The end result is that the Internet changed the way we communicate, and continues to do so with the help of Wi-Fi. / Dr. E. Marais

IEEE 802.16e ¡]also known as Mobile WiMAX¡^ is currently the international MAC ¡]medium access control¡^ standard for wireless metropolitan area networks. To enhance the network throughput and extend the coverage of base station, IEEE then defined the 802.16j standard. Clearly, one of the popular applications for WiMAX is the multicast service. On the other hand, the design of power saving technologies is important since mobile stations are often powered by batteries. In this thesis, we study the maximum energy-efficient multicast scheduling ¡]MEMS¡^ problem for an IEEE 802.16j network with transparent mode. Specifically, the base station should determine how to schedule the multicast data in a multicast superframe such that the multicast energy efficiency of network is maximal. We first prove that the MEMS problem is NP-complete. Then on the basis of SMBC-AMC, we propose its variant, called SMBC-relay, to solve this problem. However, in SMBC-relay, the base station may send the same multicast data several times, wasting the scarce bandwidth. Hence we we propose a genetic algorithm-based multicast scheduling algorithm, called GAMS. One of the key features of GAMS is that the base station can control when to terminate the algorithm by stopping the evolution at any time. Simulation results show that GAMS significantly outperforms SMBC-relay in terms of multicast energy efficiency.

This thesis contributes to the study of the planning and optimisation of wireless metropolitan area networks, in particular to the access network design of OFDMAbased systems, where different parameters like base station position, antenna tilt and azimuth need to be configured during the early stages of the network life. A practical view for the solution of this problem is presented by means of the development of a novel design framework and the use of multicriteria optimisation. A further consideration of relaying and cooperative communications in the context of the design of this kind of networks is done, an area little researched. With the emergence of new technologies and services, it is very important to accurately identify the factors that affect the design of the wireless access network and define how to take them into account to achieve optimally performing and cost-efficient networks. The new features and flexibility of OFDMA networks seem particularly suited to the provision of different broadband services to metropolitan areas. However, until now, most existing efforts have been focused on the basic access capability networks. This thesis presents a way to deal with the trade-offs generated during the OFDMA access network design, and presents a service-oriented optimization framework that offers a new perspective for this process with consideration of the technical and economic factors. The introduction of relay stations in wireless metropolitan area networks will bring numerous advantages such as coverage extension and capacity enhancement due to the deployment of new cells and the reduction of distance between transmitter and receiver. However, the network designers will also face new challenges with the use of relay stations, since they involve a new source of interference and a complicated air interface; and this need to be carefully evaluated during the network design process. Contrary to the well known procedure of cellular network design over regular or hexagonal scenarios, the wireless network planning and optimization process aims to deal with the non-uniform characteristics of realistic scenarios, where the existence of hotspots, different channel characteristics for the users, or different service requirements will determine the final design of the wireless network. This thesis is structured in three main blocks covering important gaps in the existing literature in planning (efficient simulation) and optimisation. The formulation and ideas proposed in the former case can still be evaluated over regular scenarios, for the sake of simplicity, while the study of latter case needs to be done over specific scenarios that will be described when appropriate. Nevertheless, comments and conclusions are extrapolated to more general cases throughout this work. After an introduction and a description of the related work, this thesis first focuses on the study of models and algorithms for classical point-to-multipoint networks on Chapter 3, where the optimisation framework is proposed. Based on the framework, this work: - Identifies the technology-specific physical factors that affect most importantly the network system level simulation, planning and optimization process. - It demonstrates how to simplify the problem and translate it into a formal optimization routine with consideration of economic factors. - It provides the network provider, a detailed and clear description of different scenarios during the design process so that the most suitable solution can be found. Existing works on this area do not provide such a comprehensive framework. In Chapter 4: - The impact of the relay configuration on the network planning process is analysed. - A new simple and flexible scheme to integrate multihop communications in the Mobile WiMAX frame structure is proposed and evaluated. - Efficient capacity calculations that allow intensive system level simulations in a multihop environment are introduced. In Chapter 5: - An analysis of the optimisation procedure with the addition of relay stations and the derived higher complexity of the process is done. - A frequency plan procedure not found in the existing literature is proposed, which combines it with the use of the necessary frame fragmentation of in-band relay communications and cooperative procedures. - A novel joint two-step process for network planning and optimisation is proposed. Finally, conclusions and open issues are exposed.

Bringing broadband access to rural and remote communities has been a very difficult task due to the high cost of installation and complete lack of infrastructure in certain areas. Options currently under serious consideration to enable this access have included GSM, CDMA, Power line telecommunications, and DSL technologies. However, with the addition of the IEEE 802.16 standard - commonly referred to as WiMAX - with its various advantages, another serious option is now being considered. WiMAX is standard developed to provide wireless broadband access to metropolitan area networks. It is capable of providing LOS and NLOS coverage in the range of 350 km with data rates up to 75 Mbps. This research therefore looks at the WiMAX standard MAC and PHY layers with special focus on the PHY layer properties enabling provision ofNLOS coverage (WirelessMAN OFDM PHY). The research evaluates the performance of WiMAX in a rural environment in terms of coverage and traffic analysis. Other aspects include multipath fading and channel estimation. The traffic analysis is carried out using traffic projection formulated over a period often years for Nkandla, a typical rural area in South Africa. This is done to evaluate the sustainability of the designed base stations over the ten-year period with the growing traffic. / Thesis (M.Sc.Eng.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2006.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Canterbury, 2008. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (p. 193-205). Also available via the World Wide Web.

The growing demand for faster connection to the Internet service and wireless multimedia applications has motivated the development of broadband wireless access technologies in recent years. WiMAX has enabled convergence of mobile and fixed broadband networks through a common wide-area radio-access technology and flexible network architecture. Scheduling is a fundamental component in resource management in WiMAX networks and plays the main role in meeting QoS requirements such as delay, throughput and packet loss for different classes of service. In this dissertation work, the performance of uplink schedulers at the fixed WiMAX MAC layer has been considered, we proposed an Adaptive Hierarchical Weighted Fair Queuing Scheduling algorithm, the new scheduling algorithm adapts to changes in traffic, at the same time; it is able to heuristically enhance the performance of WiMAX network under most circumstances. The heuristic nature of this scheduling algorithm enables the MAC layer to meet the QoS requirements of the users. The performance of this adaptive WiMAX Uplink algorithm has been evaluated by simulation using MATLAB. Results indicate that the algorithm is efficient in scheduling the Base Stations’ traffic loads, and improves QoS. The utilization of relay stations is studied and simulation results are compared with the case without using relay stations. The results show that the proposed scheduling algorithm improves Quality of Service of WiMAX system. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection