International Journal of P2P Network Trends and Technology (IJPTT) - Volume3 Issue4- May 2013

Simulation of Physical layer of WiMAX Network

using OPNET Modeller
Narendra Bagoria#1, Anita Garhwal *2, Anurag Sharma #3
#1
M.tech scholar, Department of Electronics & Communication Engineering
Jagannath University, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
#2& 3
Assistant Professor, Department of Electronics & Communication Engineering
Sobhasaria Group of Institutions, Sikar, Rajasthan, India

Abstract—Worldwide interoperability for Microwave Access 3G (Third Generation) communication protocol that supports
(WiMAX) standard is based on the IEEE 802.16-2005. It high data transfer speed and capacity [4], [5].
provides wireless broadband to fixed and mobile terminals. The WiMAX is based on Wireless Metropolitan Area Network
(WMAN). IEEE 802.16 group developed WMAN and it is
demand for broadband wireless services is increasing day by day.
WiMAX provides wireless broadband to fixed and mobile adopted by ETSI (European Telecommunication Standard
terminals. It is one of the latest developments and considered as a
Institute) in HiperMAN group i.e. High Performance Radio
4G (Fourth Generation) technology. It is based on Wireless Metropolitan Area Network [2]. Although the work on IEEE
Metropolitan Area Networking (WMAN). In this paper, firstly
standard started in 1999, it was only during 2003 that the
delay, load and Throughput is discussed. Then performance
analysis of physical layer of WiMAX system for uplink/ downlinkstandard received wide attention when the IEEE 802.16a
on the basis of BER and SNR is given. standard was ratified in January.
WiMAX can be classified into Fixed WiMAX [6]
Keywords— WiMAX, OFDM, OPNET, BER, Throughput. and Mobile WiMAX. Fixed WiMAX is based upon Line Of
Sight (LOS) condition in the frequency range of 10-66GHz
I. INTRODUCTION whereas Mobile WiMAX is based upon Non-Line of Sight
Wimax stands for Worldwide Interoperability for (NLOS) condition that works in 2-11 GHz frequency range
[7]. For 802.16e standard, MAC layer & PHY layer has been
Microwave Access formed by WiMAX forum in 2001. It
defined, but in this paper, emphasis is given only on the PHY
provides wireless broadband to fixed and mobile terminals in layer. PHY layer for mobile WiMAX which is IEEE-802.16e
a large geographical area. The 2005 version of WiMAX
standard [8] has scalable FFT size i.e. 128-2048 point FFT
provides data rate up to 40Mbits/s and 2011 version can
with OFDMA, Range varies from 1.6 to 5 Km at 5Mbps in
support data rate up to 1 Gbit/s for fixed stations [1]. WiMAX
5MHz channel BW, supporting 100Km/hr speed.
system uses OFDM in the physical layer. OFDM is based on
Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO) technology has also
the adaptive modulation technique in non-line-of-sight (NLOS)
been renowned as an important technique for achieving an
environments. Base stations of WiMAX can provide
increase in the overall capacity of wireless communication
communication without the need of line-of-sight (LOS)
systems. In this multiple antennas are employed at the
connection. WiMAX base station has enough available
transmitter side as well as the receiver side [8]. One can
bandwidth so at a time it can serve number of subscribers and
achieve spatial multiplexing gain in MIMO systems realized
also cover large area range. WiMAX standard have two
by transmitting independent information from the individual
versions: IEEE 802.16-2004 and IEEE 802.16d. It supports antennas, and interference reduction. The enormous values of
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) in
the spatial multiplexing or capacity gain achieved by MIMO
physical layer. It provides wireless DSL technology where
spatial multiplexing technique had a major impact on the
broadband cables are not available. WiMAX standard 802.16e
introduction of MIMO technology in wireless communication
uses (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access)
systems [9]. This paper is organized as follows. Simulation
OFDMA technique. It provides support for nomadic and
model of network using OPNET modeller is given in section
mobility services so it also known as mobile II. Section III gives the simulation results. Conclusion is given
WiMAX [2]. in section IV.

WiMAX is a wireless broadband technology it has several

improvement then Wi-Fi and UMTS (Universal Mobile
Telecommunication Services) / HSDPA (High Speed II. SIMULATION MODEL
Downlink Packet Acess). Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) provides The Network consists of three WiMAX cell i.e. single BS
wireless high speed internet and network connections [3]. (base station) and three SS (subscriber station) per cell. The
UMTS is based on 3G GSM standard. HSDPA is an enhanced parameters of SS and BS are given in Table I and Table II.

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International Journal of P2P Network Trends and Technology (IJPTT) - Volume3 Issue4- May 2013

Each BS is connected to the IP backbone. The channel was

configured to vary according to ITUPedestrian A multipath
TABLE III
fading model. For traffic configuration, all SS nodes had an
uplink application load of 20 Kbps for a total of 0.4 Mbps. All BASE STATION PARAMETERS
SS nodes were configured to use QPSK, 16 QAM and 64 Antenna Gain (dBi) 15 dBi
QAM for both uplink and downlink applications to measure Maximum Number of SS nodes 100
the characteristics. The cell used an SOFDMA frame with 512
Maximum Power density -110
subcarriers and frame duration of 5 milliseconds. Simulation
(dBm/subchannel)
time is taken as 400 seconds. We have used OPNET modeller
Ranging Backoff Start 2
14.5 for simulation [10].
Ranging Backoff End 4
PHY Profile Wireless OFDM 20MHz
PHY Profile Type OFDM

Application profile used audio application and video

applications. WiMAX configuration attributes are shown in
figure 3. [10].

Fig. 1 Network model

Following are the necessary steps for WiMAX network to

simulate over OPNET modeller. Fig. 2 WiMAX configuration attributes
 Create the initial technology IEEE 802.16 standard supports UGS, rtPS, nrtPS and BE
 Create the wireless development scenario (best effort) services [10].
 Add traffic to wireless network mod
 Configure BS, SS and WiMAX parameters. UGS (Unsolicited Grant Service)
 Running and analysing simulation results It supports VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) and streaming
applications. When this service used then wastage of
TABLE I bandwidth during the off period of voice calls.
SUBSCRIBER STATION PARAMETERS rtPS (Real-Time Polling Service)
Antenna Gain (dBi) -1 dBi When rtPS service is used, in every polling interval, BS polls
Max Power Transfer (W) 0.5 a mobile and the polled mobile transmits Bw-request
PHY Profile Wireless OFDMA 20 MHz (bandwidth request) if it has data to transmit. The BS grants
PHY Profile Type OFDM the data burst using UL-MAP-IE upon its reception.
Modulation and coding QPSK, QAM 16, QAM 64
Pathloss Model Free Space III. SIMULATION RESULTS
Buffer Size 64 KB After configuring all the BS, SS and WiMAX profile,
Terrain Type Terrain Type A application attributes. Then individual DES statistics for SS

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International Journal of P2P Network Trends and Technology (IJPTT) - Volume3 Issue4- May 2013

and IP are defined. Global parameters like delay, throughput

and load are also defined evaluate the performance of the
network. Then network model is simulated.
In all figures from 3 to 8, first scenario that is blue line shows
qpsk modulation, scenario 2 of red line shows QAM-16 and
scenario 3 of green line shows QAM 64 adaptive modulation
techniques.

Fig. 5 Comparison of average in WiMAX Throughput (packets /sec)

Fig 3. Comparison of average in WiMAX delay (sec)

Fig. 6 Comparison of WiMAX PHY downlink BLER

Fig. 4 Comparison of average in WiMAX load (packets /sec)

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International Journal of P2P Network Trends and Technology (IJPTT) - Volume3 Issue4- May 2013

It is clear from the figure 3 that delay is maximum for qpsk

and minimum for 16 QAM while from figure 4 load of 16
QAM is maximum and minimum for qpsk modulation
technique. From figure 5 maximum value of throughput is
1.05 for 16 QAM. Bit error rate of 64 QAM is highest and
qpsk is lowest while 16 QAM has moderate bit error rate as
shown in figure 6. Downlink / uplink SNR is shown in figures
7 and 8 respectively.

IV. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper performance analysis of physical layer of
WiMAX system using OPNET modeller 14.5 is done. Firstly,
delay, load and throughput for all adaptive modulation
techniques are discussed. Then performance of physical layer
of WiMAX system is evaluated on the basis of uplink
/downlink BER and SNR

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[3] Theodore S. Rappaport, “Wireless Communications: Principles &
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Fig. 8 Comparison of WiMAX PHY uplink SNR (dB)

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