A QoE-Based Scheduling Algorithm for UGS Service Class in WiMAX Network

To satisfy the increasing demand for multimedia services in broadband Internet networks, the WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Acces) technology has emerged as an alternative to the wired broadband access solutions. It provides an Internet connection to broadband coverage area of several kilometers in radius by ensuring a satisfactory quality of service (QoS), it’s an adequate response to some rural or inaccessible areas. Unlike DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) or other wired technology, WiMAX uses radio waves and can provide point-to-multipoint (PMP) and point-to-point (P2P) modes. In parallel, it’s observed that in the opposite of the traditional quality evaluation approaches, nowadays, current researches focus on the user perceived quality, the existing scheduling algorithms take into account the QoS and many other parameters, but not the Quality of Experience (QoE). In this paper, we present a QoE-based scheduling solution in WiMAX network in order to make the scheduling of the UGS connections based on the use of QoE metrics. Indeed, the proposed solution allows controlling the packet transmission rate so as to match with the minimum subjective rate requirements of each user. Simulation results show that by applying various levels of mean opinion score (MOS) the QoE provided to the users is improved in term of throughput, jitter, packet loss rate and delay.