ABSTRACT
Th e IEEE 802.16 standard family enables the convergence of fi xed and mobile broadband networks through a common wide area broadband access technology and a fl exible network architecture. In this paper we provide an overview of the recent IEEE 802.16e-2005 amendment, aimed at supporting user mobility, and we discuss several issues related to a proper choice of system parameters and strategies to be adopted to fully exploit the technology potential. Moreover, we propose a scheduling strategy aimed at providing a fair service to best eff ort users. Th e eff ectiveness of this proposal is shown via simulation.*
8.1 Introduction Th e IEEE 802.16-2004 Air Interface Standard,1 which is the basis of the WiMAX technology, is the most promising solution for the provision of fi xed broadband wireless services in a wide geographical scale and proved to be a really eff ective solution for the establishment of wireless metropolitan area networks (Wireless MAN). On February 2006, the IEEE 802.16e-2005 amendment2 to the IEEE 802.16-2004 standard has been released, which introduced a number of features aimed at supporting also users mobility, thus originating the so-called Mobile-WiMAX profi le.
