An Analysis of IEEE 802.16 and WiMAX Multicast Delivery

Broadband and wireless have enjoyed a massive mass market adoption in the past twenty years. Users want to be able to enjoy all applications, including multimedia, voice, and data, while still being able to access them in a mobile and fixed environment. Multicasting is a tool used in networking which allows for transmitting information to a select group of users and is especially useful for time-sensitive data which can be very large in terms of bandwidth. Current technologies, including WiFi, have difficulty handling such applications because they were not designed to handle multi-service flows concurrently. IEEE 802.16 and its emerging WiMAX technology will enable that sort of uncompromised data transmission in a wireless environment. WiMAX was designed primarily for that reason: to deliver different types of data simultaneously in fixed and mobile environments at broadband levels and ranges only dreamed of. The analysis described in this thesis will focus on the design of WiMAX, specifically the MAC layer and describe how its features are better suited for multicasting than WiFi. Additional goals will be to look at potential applications and services of WiMAX in the telecommunications industry.