Implementation of IEEE 802.16 WiMAX

WiMAX Implementation for NS-3

I was employed at INRIA, Sophia-Antipolis, France, from October 2006 to September 2008, as a R&D software engineer, where I was working on development of simulation module of wireless broadband network technology IEEE 802.16 WiMAX, for the newly released next-generation network simulator NS-3. My work An IEEE 802.16 WiMAX Module for the NS-3 Simulator has now been published in SIMUTools 2009 (Conference on Simulation Tools and Techniques). It can be downloaded here. Following is the text from abstract: ns-3 is a recently released next generation simulator intended as a replacement of the popular ns-2. It enables a highly rich set of features and is expected to become the first choice of the scientific community soon. ns-3 is in its evolution phase and work at different fronts is still ongoing. With the recent emergence of broadband wireless networks, simulation support for such networks, especially IEEE 802.16 WiMAX, is becoming a necessity. In this paper, we propose and discuss in detail the design and implementation of an IEEE 802.16 WiMAX module for ns-3, with the Point-to-Multipoint (PMP) mode and the WirelessMAN-OFDM PHY layer. Our module implements fundamental functions of the convergence sublayer (CS) and the MAC commonpart sublayer (CPS), including QoS scheduling services, bandwidth request/grant mechanism, and a simple uplink scheduler. The aim is to provide a standard-compliant and well-designed implementation of the standard. NS-3 is a next generation discrete-event network simulator software developed as a collaboration between University of Washington, ICIR, Georgia Institute of Technology and INRIA Sophia Antipolis. To learn more about NS-3 please visit www.nsnam.org. WiMAX is likely to play a key role in fixed and mobile broadband wireless metropolitan area networks. WiMAX is based on the IEEE 802.16 standard and is a cost effective fixed wireless alternative to cable and DSL services, as well as mobile wireless competitor for the GSM/UMTS networks. The project objective was focused on detailed implementation of MAC and PHY layers of the WiMAX standard in NS-3 simulator. My job responsibilities included design and development of complete WiMAX MAC layer and partial PHY layer in C++. The work included designing thoroughly object-oriented software design using OOSAD and UML methodologies. It required strong skills in advanced C++ techniques, algorithms, software integration and debugging. I very much enjoyed my job although IEEE 802.16 WiMAX is a complex technology and I often found myself stuck in its cumbersome technical details. The project was supervised by Thierry Turletti. The module implements the PMP topology with TDD mode and aims to provide detailed and standard compliant implementation of the standard, supporting important features including QoS scheduling services, bandwidth management, uplink request/grant scheduling and the OFDM PHY layer. The module is built completely in C++ with 36 classes and approximately 17000 lines of code. Beside the fact that it is the first WiMAX module for the ns-3 simulator, the module distinguishes itself from above modules in the respect that high attention has been put to make the design fully object-oriented, facilitating modularity, reusability, scalability and maintenance of software. The code is available under the GNU General Public License. It can be downloaded from the folllowing link: http://code.nsnam.org/iamine/ns-3-wimax/. Note that you need to install Mercurial and use its clone command to download it. Also note that the work on a number of enhancements to the module is still in progress. Since I have left INRIA since October 2009, any questions regarding the latest state of the module shall be directed to Thierry at thierry.turletti@sophia.inria.fr. The figure below shows the (preliminary) block diagram of the MAC layer design of the WiMAX module. WiMAX MAC for NS-3: block diagram from preliminary design