Measurement-Based Low-Level Performance Analysis of IEEE 802 . 16 e / WiBro Networks

Wireless Broadband (WiBro) is a Korean version of Mobile WiMAX/IEEE 802.16e system designed for mobile broadband wireless access. Being a subset of IEEE 802.16e, WiBro employs Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) and Time Division Duplex (TDD) schemes operating at 2.3 GHz bands. In July 2006, the world first commercial Mobile WiMAX service, based on WiBro specification, started in Seoul, Korea. This paper analyzes the low-level performance of the commercial WiBro networks through measurements. We measure the initial entry delay and handoff delay, and find that the authentication and ranging mechanisms are critical bottlenecks for initial entry delay and handoff delay, respectively. Furthermore, we also present the channel quality and throughput performance around the handoffs. We believe that our measurement results can be exploited by operators and chipset/equipment vendors to enhance the network performance in the future.