AbstractThe IEEE802.

16 standard which has emerged as

Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) technology, promises to deliver
high data rate over large areas to a large number of subscribers in the
near future. This paper analyze the effect of overheads over capacity
of downlink (DL) of orthogonal frequency division multiple access
(OFDMA)based on the IEEE802.16e mobile WiMAX system with
and without overheads. The analysis focuses in particular on the
impact of Adaptive Modulation and Coding (AMC) as well as
deriving an algorithm to determine the maximum numbers of
subscribers that each specific WiMAX sector may support. An
analytical study of the WiMAX propagation channel by using Cost-
231 Hata Model is presented. Numerical results and discussion
estimated by using Matlab to simulate the algorithm for different
multi-users parameters.

KeywordsBWA, mobile WiMAX, capacity, AMC , overheads.
I. INTRODUCTION
ITH the publication of the IEEE 802.16 standard by
June 2004, representing a distillation of the most
advanced technology and an industry consensus permitting
equipment interoperability, broadband wireless has gained a
maturity and is, theoretically, ready for utilization within
metropolitan networks [9]. These 802.16 networks are able to
provide high data rates and are preferably based, for non-line-
of-sight applications, on Orthogonal Frequency Division
Multiple Access (OFDMA) [10].
In recent years, there has been a considerable growth in
demand for high-speed wireless internet access and this has
caused the emergence of new long-range wireless technology.
In particular IEEE 802.16 offers an alternative to the current
wired access networks such as cable modems and digital
subscriber line (DSL) links. The IEEE 802.16 has become an
attractive alternative as it can be deployed rapidly even in
areas where it is difficult for wired infrastructures to reach,
and can better cover a broad geographical areas in an
economical and time efficient manner than compared to
traditional wired systems.
The first specification of metropolitan area wireless
networks was approved under the IEEE 802.16 standard with
the product certification name WiMAX. The IEEE 802.16
2004 standard was developed to add NLOS (Non-line-of
sight) Applications support to the basic standard.



This work was supported by the National Science and technology Major
Project: Wireless Innovative Campus Area Networks (Grant No.
2010ZX03005-003). The authors greatly acknowledge their supports.

This standard serves fixed and nomadic users in the
frequency range of 2-11 GHz. In order to add mobility to
wireless access, the WiMAX IEEE 802.16e 2005 specification
was defined utilizing frequencies of 6 GHz. A system profile
defines the subset of mandatory and optional physical and
Medium Access Control (MAC) layers features selected by
the WiMAX forum, from the IEEE 802.16 -2004 or IEEE
802.16e-2005 standard.
In this paper, we assess the effect of overheads over
capacity of downlink (DL) of orthogonal frequency division
multiple access (OFDMA)based on the IEEE802.16e mobile
WiMAX system with and without overheads. The analysis
focuses in particular on the impact of Adaptive Modulation
and Coding (AMC).The rest of paper is organized as follows:
in Section II we present mobile WiMAX PHY and MAC
layers; in Section III we present the WiMAX capacity
calculation; in Section IV we introduce the overheads analysis.
in Section V we provide a simulation result and analysis be
have concluding the paper in Section VI.
II. MOBILE WIMAX PHY AND MAC LAYERS
A. OFDMA
At present almost all upcoming broadband access
technologies including Mobile WiMAX and its competitors
use OFDMA. WiMAX allows almost any available spectrum
width to be used. Allowed channel bandwidths vary from 1.25
MHz to 28 MHz. The channel is divided into many equally
spaced subcarriers, some of which are used for data
transmission while others are reserved for monitoring the
quality of the channel (pilot subcarriers). The remaining
subcarriers are used as guard subcarriers and DC subcarrier.
The data and pilot subcarriers are modulated using one of
several available modulations and coding schemes (MCS).
The WiMAX profiles only use Time Division Duplexing
(TDD) in which the transmission consisting of the frames
shown in Fig. 1. The downlink (DL) subframe and uplink
(UL) subframe are separated by a transmit-to-transmit gap
(TTG) and receive-to-transmit gap (RTG). The frames are
shown in two dimensions with frequency along the vertical
axis and time along the horizontal axis [1].
Saeed AL-Rashdy, Qing Guo
Overhead Estimation over Capacity of Mobile
WiMAX
W
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Fig. 1 A Sample OFDMA frame structure

Subtracting the guard subcarriers and the DC subcarrier
from the total subcarriers gives the set of used subcarriers. For
both the uplink and downlink, these subcarriers are allocated
as pilot subcarriers and data subcarriers according to one of
the defined OFDMA permutation modes. Two families of
permutation modes exist: diversity and contiguous. The most
common diversity permutation mode is the Partial Usage of
the Sub-Channel (PUSC). A sub-channel is the minimum
transmission unit in an OFDMA frequency dimension. A slot
in the OFDMA PHY has both a time and sub-channel
dimension. A slot is the minimum possible data allocation unit
in the 802.16 standard. The slot definition for downlink PUSC
is 1 sub-channel x 2 OFDMA symbols; Uplink PUSC is 1 sub-
channel x 3 OFDMA symbols [2].
B. Mobile WiMAX MAC layer Structure
The MAC layer of WiMAX is comprised of three sub-
layers: a service-specific convergence sub layer, a common
part sub layer, and a privacy sub layer. The common part sub
layer is the core functional layer which provides bandwidth
and establishes and maintains connections. Moreover, as the
WiMAX MAC provides a connection-oriented service to the
subscriber stations (SS), the common part sub layer also
provides a connection identifier (CID) to identify which
connection the MPDU(MAC Protocol Data Unit) is servicing.
The common part sub layer defines five QoS classes:
Unsolicited Grant Service (UGS); real-time Polling Service
(rtPS); enhanced real time Polling Service (ertPS); non real-
time Polling Service (nrtPS) and Best Effort (BE). UGS
support constant bit rate (CBR) applications such as VoIP
without silence suppression. rtPS support variable bit
rate(VBR) applications like video transmission and ertPS
support voice with silence suppression [4].
Table I list the number of bytes per slot for various MCS
values. For each MCS, the number of bytes is equal to (bits
per symbols x Coding Rate x 48 data subcarriers and symbols
per slot / 8 bits). For 10 MHz channel and 3:1 DL: UL ratio,
the DL symbol equal to 28. Thus the DL subframe will consist
of 14*30 slots.
C. AMC and Cell-Range Estimation
Adaptive modulation and coding allows the WiMAX
system to adjust to the signal modulation scheme depending
on the signal to noise ratio (SNR) condition of the radio link.
When the radio link is high in quality, the highest modulation
scheme is used and gives the system more capacity. Values of
the receiver SNR assumptions are proposed in Table 266 of
the IEEE 802.16e amendment of the standard (see Table I,
first three columns) [3].
In this paper we study different AMC in the presence of
path loss only without neglecting the overarching concept of
BWA technology. These results in the division of the cell into
r regions, i = 1...r (see Fig. 2), which we assume to be
concentric circles of radius Ri for simplicity. In each region,
users have the same modulation scheme. To calculate the area
covered by each modulation scheme, we must determine the
maximal distance Ri between BS and users using a
corresponding modulation [5]. This distance is determined
using the path loss calculation as follows.
The COST-231 Hata model as the path loss model is
incorporated. The COST-231 model [6] is an extension to the
Hata-Okumura model that also has corrections for rural,
suburban, and urban areas. The basic path loss equation for
suburban areas is:
10 10
10 10
[ ] 46.3 33.9 log ( ) 13.82log ( )
44.9 6.55log ( )log ( ) (1)
b m
b m
PL dB f h ah
h R C
= +
+ +

f is the frequency in MHz, hb is the height of the BS in
meters, R is the distance from the BS to the receiver in
kilometers, hm is the receiver height in meters, Cm is a
standard deviation constant, 0dB for suburban or rural
environments and 3dB for urban environments. For suburban
or rural areas, the term a (hm) is defined as follows:
10 10
( ) [1.1log ( ) 0.7] [1.56log ( ) 0.8] (2)
m m
a h f h f =

And for urban areas, the term a(h
m
) is defined as follows:
2
10
( ) 3.2[log (11.75 )] 4.97 (3)
m m
a h h =
[ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] (4) PL dB PE dB SNR dB N dB =

PE is the emitted power and we consider the case of
antennas in BS and user equipment without gain. N is
thethermal noise (in units of decibels) which is equal to:
10
[ ] 10 log ( ) (5) N dB TW =
Where = 1.38 10-23 W/K-Hz is the Boltzmann constant,
T is the temperature in Kelvin (T = 290) and W is the
transmission bandwidth in Hz [5].
Using these equations, we can calculate the relationship
between the distance and the SNR as follows:
[ ] [ ] [ ] 46.3 33.9log( ) 13.82log( ) ( )
10[44.9 6.55log( )
10 (6)
b m m
b
P dB SNR dB N dB f h a h C
h
R
+

=

For the sake of illustration, let us consider the following
example based on the licensed band for mobile WiMAX at a
frequency of 2.5GHz and the system bandwidth equal to
5MHz. At this bandwidth, the thermal noise is equal to
136.99dB.
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Fig. 2 Cell decomposition into regions

The transmitted power is fixed and equal to 1W.The BS
antenna is considered to be 35 m above the ground. The SS
antennas heights are fixed at 1.5 m above the ground in
suburban environment. Considering the above mentioned
assumptions in (6) for each value of SNR, a certain amount of
distance from BS will be obtained. Considering minimum
SNR for each MCS according to Table I, the maximum
radiuses of each MCS region are obtained (as shown in
column 5 of the table). Thus, we can determine the areas of
each MCS region for each scenario with specific conditions.
III. WIMAX CAPACITY CALCULATION
The system capacity refers to the numbers of connections
that the wireless channel can support without unduly
degrading the data service carried on the channel.
In WiMAX networks, the MAC protocol is connection
oriented and time is divided into frame of fixed duration.
Moreover, MAC signaling is in band, i.e. any frame carries
both data and control messages. Therefore, the capacity
available for data transmission is affected by the overhead due
to the control message whose size in turn depend on several
factors including the number of subscriber stations that are
scheduled in a frame.
In WiMAX wireless channels the situation is considerably
more complex. The channel is not necessarily of fixed size but
can vary with time as environment conditions change. The
capacity of the cell affected by the overheads symbols
associated with data symbols in MAC and PHY layer and the
amount of signaling overhead is not constant and changes with
the number of users in an unpredictable manner.
A. Modulation Distribution
In order to analyze the capacity of a base station (BS) the
modulation distribution of area under cover must be available.
According to IEEE 802.16e standard support for QPSK,
16QAM and 64QAM are mandatory in the downlink (DL)
with mobile WiMAX; in uplink (UL) 64QAM is optional.
Both convolutional code (CC) and convolutional turbo code
(CTC) with variable code rate and repetition coding are
supported.


TABLE I
RECEIVER SNR (VALUES OF THE IEEE 802.16E)
Modulation Coding Receiver
SNR (dB)
Byte/slot Maximum
radius for
mentioned
example
(m)
BPSK 1/2 3.0 3 680.1263
QPSK 1/2 6.0 6 557.6335
3/4 8.5 9 472.5868
QPSK 1/2 11 12 557.6335
3/4 14 18 472.5868
64-QAM 2/3 19.0 24 235.8517
3/4 21.0 27 206.6071

According to the MAC technology shown in table I, the
system tries to assign the highest level modulation level to
each subscriber to maximize the overall throughput.
B. Application Distribution
This section examines and introduces the different
application classes of WiMAX and specifies a reliable
approximation for the desired parameter and usage percentage
related to each of the applications.
In [7] general service flows related to each application can
be identified with two major rate allocation types: The
reserved traffic rate and the sustained traffic rate. Three
service flows can be defined to support the WiMAX networks
application. Constant bit rate (CBR), Variable bit rate (VBR)
and Best Effort rate (BE). Based on the IEEE 802.16e 2005
standard, the WiMAX forum has broken these applications
into five major classes as shown in table III.
Since the goal of this paper is to estimate the maximum
capacity of typical Base Station (BS) and the effect of
overhead over the capacity, we will focus of the minimum
reserved data rate of each VBR and leave the maximum
sustained data rate for other work. Table II defined the model
for raw capacity estimation. Table III is the summarize
application distribution assumption model which is the final
distribution and will be taken into consideration in our
bandwidth calculation algorithm.
C. Maximum user number per-base station algorithm
Fig. 3 show an algorithm to calculate the maximum number
of users that can be simultaneously supported and maintained
through a high throughput of networks.

TABLE II
WIMAX CHANNEL BANDWIDTH SPREADSHEET MODEL
Item Value Units Comments
Base Station 1 # No. of BS
FFT size 512 1024 # FFT configuration
Channel size 5 10 MHz Channel size
Cyclic prefix 1/4,1/8,1/16,1/32 # CP
N 28/27 # Sampling factor
Fs 11.2 MHz Sampling frequency
Tb 91.43 s Useful symbol time
Tg 11.43 s Guard time CP
Ts 102.86 s Symbol time (Tb +Tg)
Tf 5 ms Frame duration
DL:UL 3:1 # DL:UL ratio


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TABLE III
APPLICATION DISTRIBUTION ASSUMPTION
Application Data rate
(kbps)
Weight
Multiplayer interactive
gaming.
50 25%
VOIP and video
conference.
32 10%
Streaming media. 64 12.5%
Web browsing. Normal 32.5%
Media content
downloading
BE 20%


Fig. 3 maximum user number algorithms
IV. OVERHEAD ANALYSIS
In the DL subframe, overhead consists of a preamble, FCH,
DLMAP and UL-MAP as shown in Fig. 1. The MAP entries
consist of a fixed part and a variable part. These entries can
result in a significant amount of overhead.
WiMAX Forum recommends using compressed MAP,
which reduces the DL-MAP entry overhead to 11 bytes and
includes 4 bytes for Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC). The
fixed UL-MAP is 6 bytes long with an optional 4-byte CRC.
With a repetition code of 4 and QPSK1/2, both fixed DL-MAP
and UL-MAP take up 16 slots.
The variable part of DL-MAP consists of one entry per
bursts and requires 60 bits per entry. Similarly, the variable
part of UL-MAP consists of one entry per burst and requires
52 bits per entry. These are all repeated 4 times and use only
QPSK1/2 MCS. It should be pointed out that repetition
consists of repeating slots (and not bytes). Thus, both DL and
UL MAPs entries also take up 16 slots each per burst. The UL
subframe also has fixed and variable parts. Ranging and
contention are in the fixed portion. Their sizes are defined by
the network administrator.
The other fixed portion is channel quality indication (CQI)
and acknowledgements (ACK). These regions are also defined
by the network administrator. Obviously, more fixed portions
are allocated; less number of slots are then available for the
user workloads. In this analysis, three OFDM symbol columns
for all fixed regions are allocated. Each UL burst begins with a
UL preamble. One OFDM symbol is used for short preamble
and two for long preamble. One slot for the UL preamble is
allocated. Each MAC PDU has at least 6-bytes of MAC
header and a variable length payload consisting of a number of
optional sub-headers, data, and an optional 4- byte CRC. The
optional sub-headers include fragmentation, packing, and
mesh. Each of these is 2 bytes long [1][8].
V. SIMULATION RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
An analysis has been performed to estimate the upper bound
of the total number of simultaneous multi-traffic users. Figs. 4
and 5 show the maximum users numbers of multi-traffic users
with and without overheads while we use different MCS and
AMC.
The range of the number of users when we use 5MHz
channel bandwidth is from 4 to 79 and from 14 to 158 when
we use 10MHz. The effect of overheads over BPSK and
QPSK is more than other modulation and coding scheme, as
show in figs. 4 and 5. This is because most of control message
were sent by BPSK and QPSK.
Fig. 6 shows the number of users vs. data rate of each user
with and without overheads. Fig. 7 shows the effect of
overheads versus data rate of each user. With the increase in
data rate of each user, the percentage effect of overheads
decreases. This is because with the increase of data rate of
each user, the numbers of users decrease. Thus the overheads
decrease and throughput increases.
In fig. 8, the number of users increases with the growth of
transmission power. According to equation (6), the radiuses of
all regions increase with the growth of transmission power.
Thus, the numbers of users increase. BS keeps accepting users
until the minimum demand data-rate exceeds the amount of
available BW.
Fig. 9 and 10 show the maximum number of users of multi-
traffic users with and without overheads while (DL,UL)
Modulation Coding Scheme (MCS) level are
(QPSK1/2,QPSK1/2),(QPSK1/2,16QAM3/4),and(TMCS).
When we use 5MHz channel bandwidth, we obtained 12 to 79
numbers of users and 42 to 205 users when we use 10MHz.
This result may not be meaningful when QoS is considered in
addition to the bandwidth requirement. This multi-traffic
users estimation contains real-time application, which is very
sensitive to the delay. The delay increases when the users
number increases and the QoS will be affected. Therefore, an
engineers designer could use any way to control the users
number on the networks.
VI. CONCLUSION
Efficient and optimal utilization of available bandwidth
resources has always been a matter of deep concern for
engineers designing and implementing WiMAX networks. In
this paper, we considered estimation of mobile WiMAX DL
capacity and focused on the effect of overheads and different
AMC.
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Fig. 4 number of users with different MCS (without and with
overhead) 5MHz


Fig. 5 number of users with different MCS (without and with
overhead) 10MHz

We calculated different regions radiuses with the COST-
231Hata model. The algorithm for the calculation of the
maximum number of users per BS is evaluated and the effect
of overhead is estimated.
With the understanding of the systems raw capacity and the
effect of the overheads associated with MAC and PHY layers
on capacity of mobile WiMAX, we have discussed how the
number of users is reduces when the data rate of user is
increased. We also estimated how the number of users
increases when the transmission power also increased.
Overhead is one of the main factors that can affect the
capacity of the network. The estimate showed the greatest
effect of overhead is in BPSK and QPSK modulation.

Fig. 6 No. of users versus data rate


Fig. 7 The effect of overhead versus data rate

Fig. 8 No. of users versus transmission power

0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
number
of SS
different MCS
without OH
with OH
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
number
of SS
different MCS
without OH
with OH
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Fig. 9 Number of Users with Different MCS( without and with
overhead)5MHz


Fig. 10 Number of Users with Different MCS( without and with
overhead) 10MHz
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