Proactive transmission-based QoS provisioning for multicast and broadcast services in mobile WiMAX systems

Mobile WiMAX systems have gained much attention for high transmission rates in cellular environments. One of the promising applications that can leverage high bit rates is multicast and broadcast services (MBSs). Although the expectation of IP-based multimedia streaming services in mobile environments is rising, QoS provisioning for those delay sensitive services is still challenging since mobility should be supported without intolerable delay. In this paper, we propose to transmit the streaming packets of MBSs proactively and probabilistically, so that the average handover delay perceived by a user is stochastically guaranteed. To quantify the tradeoff between the perceived handover delay and the bandwidth overhead of proactive transmissions, we develop an analytical model considering user mobility, user distribution, and session popularity. Comprehensive simulation is carried out to verify the analysis.