Implementation and Evaluation of Scheduling

Algorithms for a WiMAX System using Network

Simulator 2
K.DINESH(ECE) –649chinnu@gmail.com, 9160509119
P.KRISHNA DAS(ECE)- coolrockydas@gmail.com,9948682905
VITAM COE
Abstract— A variety of Scheduling algorithms have been higher layer should be transmitted by the PHY layer. If
proposed for WiMAX systems to satisfy the QoS this is not satisfied, the packet is said to have expired.
requirements of all the nodes in the system. This Paper
aims to evaluate the working of the Modified Proportional 4. Maximum Jitter - Jitter is a measure of the variance of
Fairness Scheduling Algorithm and compare it with the the delay of the packets being sent for a connection. It is
commonly used Proportional Fairness Scheduling defined as |D1 − D0| for each packet, where D1 is the
Algorithm, by introducing the algorithms for these delay of the current packet and D0 the delay of the
schedulers into the commonly used Network Simulation previous packet. The Jitter for each packet in a
Software NS2. Simulations are performed under a variety connection should be less than the Maximum Jitter
of scenarios to study the performance of both schedulers. specified in the QoS Parameters for that connection.
Results exhibit the increased throughput delivered by the
Modified Proportional Fairness Algorithm. Using the 5. Maximum Traffic Burst (MTB)- The maximum data that
results, suggestions are made to increase the efficiency of can be serviced in a given time interval.
the proposed Algorithm.

Keywords—rtPS,nrtPS,BE,UGS,MPFA,polling,Tcl,WiMAX,QoS
6. Unsolicited Grant Interval (UGI) - The time period with
which grants (allocations) for data transmission should
I. INTRODUCTION be given for the connection.
WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access)
is a telecommunications technology which provides for 7. Unsolicited Polling Interval (UPI)- The time period
wireless communication i.e. transfer of data between different with which bandwidth allocation for polling should be
nodes. The Technology is based on the IEEE 802.16e standard provided.
(the WirelessMAN Standard). The standard assumes a Point-
to-Multipoint topology with a controlling Base Station (BS) 8. Traffic Priority - A parameter with which the scheduler
that connects Mobile Stations (MSs) to various servers or can decide the priority for 2 connections when all other
public networks linked to the BS. The system can service both QoS Parameters are the same.
Uplink (UL) connections, where data is transmitted by the MS
and received by the BS, and Downlink (DL) Connections
where data is transmitted by the BS and received by the MS.
The various applications of the MSs are serviced via these
connections.
Theory and Definitions important to this paper are
summarized below.

A. Quality of Service (QoS)

1. Maximum Sustained Traffic Rate (MSR)- The maximum
possible traffic rate which can be provided for the
connection.
2. Min Reserved Traffic Rate (MRR)- The minimum traffic
rate which is guaranteed to be provided by the
scheduler.
3. Latency - The maximum time delay before which a
packet which has been received by the MAC from a
Fig 1 : Frame Structure
The frame in Fig 1 is basically an allocation in time
and in frequency decided by the MAC for the various
connections to transmit data. The X axis above is the time
duration (from 0 - 5ms for this WiMAX system). The Y axis
represents the frequency spectrum this WiMAX system is
permitted to use. Each row is called a subchannel, and consists
of 48 frequency subcarriers. This results in frequency
diversity. Each column is called a symbol (it is in the time
domain).
 The function of the scheduler hence is to decide
which connections are to be given an allocation in each frame,
and the size of the allocation in terms of number of slots. This
has to be done to ensure efficiency and to ensure that the QoS
parameters are satisfied for all connections, and is important
when the amount of data ready to be transmitted is more than
what can be transmitted in a single frame.
B. Modulation Rates
When the scheduler is providing allocations for each
connection, it has to decide how many slots to provide for that
connection. Depending on the quality of the connection and
the distance of the MS from the BS, various modulation
schemes exist. These modulation schemes define the
efficiency of the connection i.e. how many bytes of data can
be sent in each slot. Better quality connections, and those
where the MS is closer to the BS (hence the attenuation of the
power of the signal will be lesser) will be more efficient i.e.
will need lesser number of slots for a given quantity of data to
be transmitted. 7 Modulation rates are supported in this NS2
implementation of a WiMAX system.
1) BPSK ½ : Binary Phase Shift Keying. In this
modulation scheme, transfer of data can occur at the rate of 1
bit per slot per subcarrier with a spectral efficiency
(redundancy) of 1/2 i.e. 3 bytes of data per slot.
2) QPSK ½ : Quadrature Phase Shift Keying. Transfer of
data can occur at the rate of 2 bits per slot per subcarrier with
a spectral efficiency of 1/2 i.e. 6 bytes per slot.
3) QPSK ¾: Can transmit data at the rate of 9 bytes per slot.
4) QPSK ¾ - 16 QAM ½ Quadrature Amplitude
Modulation - Transfer of data can occur at the rate of 4 bits
per slot per subcarrier with spectral efficiency 1/2 i.e. 12 bytes
per slot.
5) 16 QAM ¾ - Heading:Can transmit data at the rate of 18
bytes per slot.
6) 64 QAM 2/3 - Transfer of data can occur at the rate of 6
bits per slot per subcarrier with spectral efficiency 2/3 i.e. 24
bytes of data per slot. Can transmit data at the rate of 27 bytes
per slot.
7) 64 QAM ¾ - Clearly connections which are operating at
a higher modulation scheme can operate with a greater data
rate i.e. can transfer more data in the allocation given to it by
the scheduler.
II. IMPLEMENTATION IN NETWORK SIMULATOR 2
Network Simulator 2 (NS2) is a popularly used software for
simulating networks with wired or wireless systems. It is used
for analyzing the performance of the system under a variety of
parameters. The simulation environment i.e. the number of
mobile nodes, the number of connections and their QoS
Parameters etc are specified using a Tcl code, which is then
executed by the NS2 software. Recently, a patch for the NS2
simulator was developed to include WiMAX networks. The
NS2 software hence implements the WiMAX scenarios as per
the IEEE 802.16 standards.
The NS2 for WiMAX has its own scheduler implemented
in C++ code. The objective of this paper is to provide
Modified Proportionate Fairness Scheduler to be
implemented, and the WiMAX network to function with these
scheduler for analysis. This is done by introducing these
algorithms in the form of C++ code, and by bypassing the
scheduler implemented in the NS2 software. The precise
algorithms are described in the next section. The NS2 Release
Documentation available on the Internet is a good source for
complete information on the working of the NS2 software.
III. ARCHITECTURE
A. Overall WiMAX Architecture
Fig 2:Wimax Architecture
1) Mobile Station: The technical term for customer premise
equipment (CPE) is subscriber station. The generally accepted
marketing terms now focus on either "indoor CPE" or
"outdoor CPE".
2) Base Station: The BS is responsible for providing the air
interface to the MS. functions that may be part of the BS are
handoff triggering and tunnel establishment, radio resource
management, QoS policy enforcement, traffic classification
etc.
3) ASN :Access service networks (ASN) provide a means
to connect mobile subscribers using OFDMA air link to IP
backbone with session continuity.ASN comprises base
stations (BS) and access gateways named ASNGW. The
interface between ASN and mobile subscriber is through BS.
 4) CSN : The CSN provides connectivity to the Internet,
ASP, other public networks, and corporate networks. The
CSN is owned by the NSP and includes AAA servers that
support authentication for the devices, users, and specific
services. The CSN also provides per user policy management
of QoS and security. The CSN is also responsible for IP
address management, support for roaming between different
NSPs, location management between ASNs, and mobility and
roaming between ASNs.
IV. SYSTEM DESIGN
A. MAC Module Structure:
s d u C la s s ifie r
c la s s if ie r lis t
M ac802_16 S e rvic e F lo w H a n d le r
m a c m ib _ : M a c 8 0 2 _ 1 6 +MsIBe rv ic e f lo w h a n d le r
p h y m ib _ : P h y 8 0 2 _ 1 6 M IB
fra m e _ n u vm b e r_ : in t
+ p e e r_ lis t
la s t _ t x _ d e la y _ : d o u b le p e e rN o d e
p k tR x _ : P a c k e t
p k tB u f_ : P a c k e t c o n n e c t io n m a n ager
s t a t e _ : M a c 8 0 2 _ 1 6 S ta t e
C o n n e c tio n M a n a gd eo rw n _ c o n _ lis t
m ac
W im a x S c h e d u le r
B S S c h e d u le r
Fig 3: MAC 802.16 diagram
The Mac802_16 is a subclass of the Mac class. It is an
abstract class that contains the common elements of the BS
and MS. For example it stores the MAC MIB and PHY MIB.
It is the interface with other layers for sending and receiving
packets. Fig 3 shows the class and the relations with other
modules.
A MAC has a list of packet classifiers (SDUClassifier) that
maps each outgoing packet with the proper connection
identifier (CID). Using TCL, the user configures the list of
classifiers to be used . The current implementation uses the
destination IP address as the classifying element.
The ServiceFlowHandler is responsible for handling flow
requests/responses. It also stores the list of flows for the node.
A MSS is registered to a BS, and a BS can be connected
to multiple MSSs. The class PeerNode contains information
about the peer, such as its connections and status. The
Connections are also accessed via the ConnectionManager,
which contains the list of incoming and outgoing connections.
The WimaxScheduler abstract class is used to create an
interface with the MAC. There are mainly two types of
schedulers: one for the BS, and one for the MSS. Since the
scheduler is specified in TCL, it is easy to implement the
abstract class and change it.
Finally, the MAC computes statistics via StatWatch and
ThroughputWatch objects for packet and traffic information.
The values are used to trigger events, but can also be printed
during the simulation for post processing.
V. SCHEDULING ALGORITHMS
As described before, the Scheduling Algorithm followed
by the MAC of the BS determines how the various
connections are given allocations in the frames to transmit
data, and hence determine how the different connections are
serviced.
S D U C la s s ifie r
A. NS2 WiMAX Scheduling Algorithm
The NS2 simulator considers all available
connections in a list. The connections are processed in the
D e s t C la s s ifie r following order of priority - UGS, ertPS, rtPS, nrtPS, BE i.e.
if there are any slots left after allocation for the UGS
s e vic e flo w
connections, they are allocated for the ertPS connections and
+ f lo w
so on.
1) Downlink Connections
Every time a packet is received by the MAC layer
c o n n e c t io n
from a higher layer, it is added to the connection queue. Every
time an allocation is given in the frame for the data to be
- c o n n e c tio n s
transmitted for that connection, the packets are removed from
the queue and transmitted. The size of the allocation to be
C o n n e c t io n
given is hence determined by the number of packets in the
queue, and their total size. This is continued for all
connections as long as there are free slots available in that
S S s c h e d u le r frame.
2)Uplink Connections
a) UGS Connections - The Scheduler provides an
allocation of constant size periodically, based on the UGI QoS
parameter. The size of the allocation is calculated based on the
MRR (Data Rate) QoS parameter.
b) ertPS Connections - The scheduler polls the MS when
the connection is silent, and provides the allocation of
constant size when it is active, as with UGS Connections.
c) rtPS, nrtPS, BE Connections - The scheduler
periodically polls the connections (based on the UPI QoS
Parameter) to get the Bandwidth Request (in bytes) from the
connections, and provides an allocation for uplink data
transfer for that connection depending on availability of
slots.This implementation does not explicitly take into account
the QoS Parameters of latency and Jitter to be satisfied for all
the connections. As UGS and ertPS connections have more
QoS Parameters to be satisfied, they are given higher priority
and as BE connections do not have any QoS Parameters to be
satisfied, they are given the least priority.
B. Proportional Fairness Scheduler
Proportional Fairness is an algorithm which is used
to increase the throughput (total data flow supported by the
system). This is achieved by scheduling the connections for
allocation on the basis of their modulation rates. The higher
the modulation scheme, the more the data that can be sent
using a smaller number of slots. Hence if the connections with
higher modulation rates are given priority, more data can be
transmitted in the system and the throughput of the system
will be higher. Various proportional fairness schedulers have
been proposed using a variety of formulae to optimize the
throughput of the system. These algorithms do not themselves
necessarily take into account the QoS Parameters of delay,
jitter, traffic rate etc. In this implementation, the main concern
is to satisfy the QoS Parameters of all connections without
packet loss, and hence a Modified Proportional Fairness
Algorithm is implemented and is discussed below.
C. Modified Proportional Fairness Scheduler
1) Downlink Connections
For UGS Downlink Connections,the Proportional
Fairness Scheduler cannot be expected to satisfy the jitter QoS
Parameter . The connection queues of all rtPS connections are
examined. Any packets found to be nearing expiry (i.e. their
delay is nearing their latency) are scheduled immediately, to
ensure that packet loss due to delay is avoided. nrtPS and BE
connections do not have a latency parameter to be satisfied.
For all rtPS, nrtPS and BE Downlink Service flows, for
every frame, a weight is calculated for each connection, based
on the formula below.
The Parameter α can be varied in order to optimize the
weight formula to ensure that throughput is increased while
still satisfying the QoS Parameters of the connection. As α
increases, the throughput will increase, but chances of packet
loss too are higher. For the purposes of this project, α = 0.5.
This empirical formula for weight is derived from the
knowledge of how the connections need to be serviced.
Connections which require a higher data rate are given a
higher priority. Connections which are serviced less will be
given higher priority. Hence w1 brings in ’fairness’ to the
allocation, as it will ensure that all connections will be
serviced fairly. w2, is determined purely based on the
modulation scheme followed. If connections with higher
modulation schemes are serviced, the total throughput of the
system with increase. Hence w2 determines the proportional
aspect of this scheduling algorithm and ensures that
connections are serviced on the basis of their modulation
schemes.
The connections are serviced in the order of decreasing
weight, as long as free downlink slots are available in the
frame. For each connection, the size of the allocation is
calculated by measuring the size of the data packets in the
queue.
1) Uplink Connections
The Proportional Fairness Scheduler cannot satisfy
the jitter QoS parameter. For ertPS, rtPS and nrtPS
connections, the periodic allocation for Bandwidth Request is
done. As with the Downlink allocation, weights are calculated
for each of the rtPS, nrtPS and BE connections. The formula
used is the same as for the downlink connections. Based on
the last received Bandwidth request, allocations are provided
for the connections in the order of their weights.
VI. TCL SCRIPTING OF SIMULATION SCENARIOS
The principal advantage of having a software which can
simulate a wireless network is scalability i.e. using the NS2
software with the modified scheduler algorithms, we can
consider various scenarios, with a varied number of MSs, a
large number of connections of different kinds and different
service flows, with different data rates etc. The scheduling
algorithm can hence be evaluated for performance under these
varied scenarios. NS2 allows the simulation scenario to be
constructed using Tcl code. The Tcl code acts as a bridge
between the user and the C++ code which does the actual
simulation of the WiMAX system. In the Tcl code, the user
can specify all the simulation parameters such as
1. Node Configuration parameters
2. MAC and PHY parameter like RTG, TTG, Power
Thresholds etc.
3. WiMAX Channel Parameters like the routing
protocol, queue length, propagation models
VI. RESULTS
A. ertPS Silence Suppression:
1 ertPS connection traffic and data allocation is
shown without silence suppression as in Fig 4(a) and with
silence suppression implemented as in Fig 4 (b)
Fig 4(a) ertPS without Silence Suppression
 2. Fairness – Calculated using Jain’s Fairness Index as

3. Throughput of the Connection - Total Data serviced

for the Connection/Time of Service. If the packet is to
be dropped, it is not counter towards the total data
serviced for the connection.

Fig 4(b)ertPS with silence suppression
So silence suppression could be noticed in
Fig 4(b) where no data allocation is provided (equal
to zero) when the mobile node falls silent. In the
scenario described above mobile node falls silent
after 4 ms (800 frames ) by setting the piggy_back
request field in GMSH to silent. After 8 ms (1200
frames) it becomes active by setting the piggy_back
field to active. This request could be sent by the
mobile node since it is polled at regular intervals by
the base station.
B. Port Classification
D. Simulation Results
As described before, simulations are performed for a
WiMAX system with a large number of mobile nodes,
under the different modulation schemes, using the
Proportionate Fairness Scheduler. The system is taken to
be a 10 MHz system. The frame size is 5 milliseconds, and
the downlink ratio (i.e. the ratio of the number of slots for
Downlink data and the number of slots for uplink data) is
75:25
1) Evaluation of Modified Proportionate Fairness
Algorithm
In this section, the working of the Modified
Proportional Fairness Algorithm (MPF Scheduler) is
evaluated. The MPF Scheduler follows the Proportional
Fairness Algorithm, but includes a criterion to satisfy the
delay requirement of an rtPS connection. Simulation Scenario
- 9 Mobile Nodes, each with 1 rtPS DL Connection.
2) Proportional Fairness Algorithm (without delay criterion)

Fig 5: Port Classification

In Fig5 we can see a UGS traffic simulated under the
following conditions 6 MS with three applications each. Each
application for a given mobile node is serviced with an
average throughput of 0.088 Mb.This enhancement has made Fig 6(a) : system throughput and individual traffic
the network simulator to handle more than one application for
a single mobile node. Fig5 shows each destination along with
their port numbers .

C. Graphical Evaluation of Output

Code is written so as to generate a graphical output to
investigate the efficiency of the system under the various
constraints. A plotting software called XGraph is available
with the NS2 software. Output files are generated which
can be plotted using XGraph. Every time a packet is sent
from the MAC layer to the PHY layer in the BS or the MS,
the following characteristics of the packet are noted and
recorded according to the connection to which the packet Fig 6(b) : delay for PF Algorithm(without delay)
belongs.
1. Variance in service rate – Difference between
maximum service rate and minimum service rate.

3)Proportionate Fairness Algorithm with delay criterion
In this simulation, 'fairness' is not included for the
scheduler algorithm i.e. the weights calculated for each
connection is
This simulation helps us evaluate the effect of 'fairness' in the
Proportional Fairness Algorithm.
Simulation Scenario : 9 Mobile Nodes, each with 1 rtPS DL
Connection of latency 100ms. Through trial and error, the
maximum throughput possible for the system such that no
connection has any packet loss is found through simulation.
The simulation is performed with Modulation Scenario 1.
Each application is assumed to have a constant bit rate data
flow, with a packet size of 500 bytes and an inter-arrival time
of 2 ms.
Fig 7(a) System Throughput, 7(b) Throughputs for Individual Connections for
rtPS DL
7(c) Delay of each packet in each connection at the time of transmission
As can be seen from the graphs, the total throughput
the system can support without any packet loss for any
connection is 18MbPs, with each of the 9 connections having
a datarate of 2MbPs. All the packets are sent within their
latency of 100ms, as can be seen from Fig 7(c). The criteria
for all packets to be sent without losses for a CBR application
is
InputDataRate <= MaximumOutputDataRate
Clearly, the Maximum Output Data Rate in this
simulation scenario is 18MbPs. If the input data rate is
increased any more, the delay for each packet will increase
linearly.
4) Modified Proportionate Fairness Algorithm Scheduler
Proportional Fairness with the delay criterion
included for rtPS connections.
Simulation Scenario : 9 Mobile Nodes, each with 1 rtPS DL
connection of latency 100 ms. Each connection has a CBR
application. The maximum possible rate such that there is no
packet loss is found by trial and error.
Fig 8(a) System Throughput 8(b) Individual Throughput
Fig 8(c) delay of each packet in each connection at the time of transmission
The system throughput achieved by the MPFA
Scheduler is more than the throughput achieved in the
Scheduler implementing just the Proportional Algorithm. This
is because the 'fairness' part of the algorithm ensures that all
connections are serviced at approximately the same rate, and
hence the necessity for the 'delay' criterion in the scheduler to
be invoked is lesser in the MPFA Scheduler than in the
Proportional Scheduler. The system throughput achieved by
the MPFA Scheduler is nearly as high as the throughput
achieved when the latency of the rtPS connections was
assumed to be infinite, which is also the maximum throughput
achieved for the system with BE connections.
 VII. LIMITATIONS AND SCOPE FOR
IMPROVEMENT
1. All simulations performed are restricted to a
simulation time of 10 seconds. To test the durability of
the system, scheduler simulator, results can be
obtained for a longer simulation time.
2. A large number of connections of each service flow
type can be generated to evaluate how the system
meets the QoS Parameters of all the connections. This
would particularly be useful to evaluate the working of
the modifications to the Proportional Fairness
Algorithm suggested in the previous section.
3. For rtPS, nrtPS and BE connections, applications with
Variable Bit Rate (VBR) can be implemented to
evaluate the working of the scheduler. By evaluating
the output from a variety of VBR applications,
suggestions can be made for the improvement of the
both the Schedulers.
4. NS2 treats each connection with each mobile node
independently. If there are two DL connections of the
same service flow between the BS and the same MS,
the NS2 software is known to give some problems. If
this is resolved, more practical simulation scenarios
can be generated for the testing of the schedulers.
VIII. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper we proposed an enhancement
for the Proportionate Fairness Scheduling Algorithm
i.e Modified Proportionate Fairness Algorithm ,which
ensures increased throughput for rtPs, nrtPS and BE
connections. It has its own advantages over
Proportionate Fairness Algorithm since delay criterion
is also included .
By analysing the simulation graphs we may
conclude that increased high throughput in Modified
Proportionate Fairness and we shall extend this work to
study the required parameters for QoS in UGS type of
connections .
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