Comparison of WiMAX and ADSL Performance when Streaming Audio and Video Content

The IEEE 802.16 Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) standard is widely used for fixed and mobile Internet access. WiMAX provides maximum data rate of 75 Mbps and high-speed Internet access to a wide range of devices used by clients over the last mile. Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) is widely used to provide guaranteed service. In this paper, we compare performance of WiMAX and ADSL by streaming audio and video contents. File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and electronic mail have also been used for the comparison. We used OPNET Modeler versions 15.0 and 16.0 to evaluate packet loss, delay, delay jitter, and throughput with various design parameters to determine whether WiMAX exhibits performance comparable to ADSL.