Prioritized access control in IEEE 802.16 networks

Prioritized network entry is desirable for establishing preferential network connectivity for the higher priority users when different priority users exist over a given network. In line with such desirability, we propose a simple but efficient priority differentiated initial ranging mechanism considering an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) based IEEE 802.16 network. In the proposed mechanism, we introduce an approach that integrates an explicit CDMA-ranging code reservation scheme with a Ranging Slot Selection Window (RSSW) differentiation scheme. Simulation results are provided to characterize the performance of the proposed mechanism.