Chapter 7 - The IEEE 802.16m Medium Access Control Common Part Sub-layer (Part II)

Abstract

This chapter describes the functional and operational aspects of the IEEE 802.16m MAC Common Part Sublayer (MAC CPS) on the data-plane. To draw an analogy between the IEEE 802.16m and 3GPP LTE Layer 2 protocols, one must note that the Layer 2 functions of the latter include MAC and RLC sublayers and the RRC sublayer is considered Layer 3. The IEEE 802.16m RRCM functional group corresponds to RRC sublayer in 3GPP LTE, and the IEEE 802.16m MAC sublayer is analogous to a combination of 3GPP LTE MAC and RLC sublayers. The IEEE 802.16m MAC is connection-oriented. For the purpose of mapping services to varying levels of QoS at mobile stations, all data communications are manifested in the form of transport connections. Service flows may be provisioned when an MS performs network entry. Following MS registration with the serving BS, transport connections are established and associated with the service flows (one connection per service flow) to provide a reference for requesting bandwidth. Furthermore, new transport connections may be established when a user's service needs to change. A transport connection defines the mapping between peer convergence sublayers that utilize the MAC and a service flow. The service flow defines the QoS parameters for the PDUs that are exchanged on the connection.