Hybrid satellite-IEEE 802.16 system for mobile multimedia delivery

Abstract

This paper describes and discusses a heterogeneous system of satellite and IEEE 802.16 WiMAX networks collaborating for the efficient delivery of multimedia services. We first elaborate on the rationale behind integrated satellite and WiMAX networks with an overview of current research on interworking of satellite and 3G/Beyond 3G terrestrial networks. Following this background, we propose a diverse set of enhancements and additions into WiMAX Base Station (BS) and Multicast Broadcast Service Controller (MBSC), which allows this interworking in the multimedia delivery context. We describe a WiMAX BS downlink scheduler that considers satellite channel conditions of the dual-mode SSs (Subscriber Station) while making resource allocation and packet scheduling. This scheduler interacts with another proposed module in MBSC, namely Satellite-Terrestrial Interaction Module, for performing these operations. Traffic for real-time multimedia and cache-based delivery is considered in the system. On the SS side, a lightweight signaling scheme between BS and SS for service continuity and control is presented. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.