A Dynamic MAC Protocol for WCDMA Wireless Multimedia Networks

Existing MAC protocols like TDMA and 802.11 have many disadvantages for scheduling multimedia traffic in CDMA wireless networks. Our objective is to develop a dynamic MAC protocol for WCDMA networks to avoid congestion and improve the channel utilization and throughput of the bulky real-time flows. In this paper, we propose to develop a dynamic MAC protocol for wireless multimedia networks. In the design, we combine the merits of the CSMA, TDMA MAC protocols with WCDMA systems to improve the throughput of the multimedia WLAN in a cellular environment. We use these MAC protocols adaptively, to handle both the low and high data traffics of the mobile users. It uses multiple slots per frame allowing multiple users to transmit simultaneously using their own CDMA codes. By simulation results, we show that our proposed MAC protocol achieves high channel utilization and improved throughput with reduced average delay under low and high data traffic.