A new multi-rat scheduling algorithm for heterogeneous wireless networks

Abstract

The concept of heterogeneous wireless networks (HWNs) is based on the coexistence and interoperability of different types of radio access technologies (RATs) such as long term evolution (LTE) and wireless local area network (WLAN) in a unified wireless heterogeneous platform. Guaranteeing the quality of service (QoS) is an important issue for the next generation wireless networks which are characterized by providing different types of services. To schedule different types of service in HWN, distinct scheduling algorithms have been studied intensively in the literature. Thus in our research work, we focus on a common scheduling algorithm for the HWN where the traffic streams are classified into different categories, and each category has its own set of QoS parameters such as data rate and delay. In this article, we propose a new dynamic scheduling algorithm for HWN. The proposed solution introduces a new approach in scheduling packets while maintaining performance in wireless networks. The scheduling scheme is mainly based on transmission links' condition from the media independent handover (MIH) module, type of call (handoff call prioritization) and classes of service. In order to study the performance of the proposed scheme, we use simulation analysis and compare the performance of our scheme with a competing reference scheme called NSA (new scheduling algorithm) for wireless mesh networks in order to reveal its ability to adapt to the specific service and channel conditions. Simulation results show that under large number of users, the proposed algorithm has lower packet loss and blocking calls ratio while offers allowable average packet delay.