A new scheduling algorithm called the Adaptive Weighted Round Robin with Delay Tolerance (AWRR/DT) is presented. This scheme can adapt to the traffic fluctuation of networks with a small processing burden. The proposed scheme incorporates a cell discarding method to reduce the QoS degradation in high-loaded (or congested) period. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme can reduce the average delay of the non-real-time (NRT) class, especially in high-loaded conditions, while maintaining the QoS of real-time (RT) classes. Our scheme with the discarding method can also reduce both the mean waiting time and cell loss ratio of RT classes.

A new MAC protocol using the Adaptive Weighted Round Robin with Delay Tolerance (AWRR/DT) is presented. The proposed protocol is a type of centralized MAC protocol where the base station performs most operations. By using the AWRR/DT scheduler, we can guarantee delay QoS to different traffics without the heavy overhead induced by packet-based tagging techniques. In order to enhance the efficiency of random access systems, the proposed protocol employs three novel contention methods: slotted ALOHA with threshold, contention method using adaptive contention period, and traffic-specific contention method. Simulation results show that the proposed protocol guarantees delay bounds by using the AWRR/DT. The slotted ALOHA with threshold suffers less collisions than the regular slotted ALOHA when mobile terminals request slots. The method using adaptive contention period adjusts the length of contention period of each frame to relieve the performance degradation by collisions. The traffic-specific contention method provides a priority handling mechanism to contention-based systems. Experimental results of each contention method are provided.