Multi-client video streaming over WirelessMAN-OFDMA

Wireless Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) is a prime contender in the Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) market due to its next generation network architecture, low patent portfolio load considerations, support for Quality of Service (QoS), and last but not least, high capacities. Although until recently there has been a lot of interest in the mobility support of the technology, with the recent push for the Third Generation Partnership Project’s (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE), vendors are advancing WiMAX (in particular with the Wireless Metropolitan Area Network - Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (WirelessMAN-OFDMA) air interface specified by the IEEE 802.16 working group) as a fixed broadband replacement. For this market segment, Audio/Video (A/V) delivery is expected to be a key service offering. In this paper, we perform a detailed empirical evaluation using a state-of-the-art WiMAX testbed with multiple video flows directed at several Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) devices simultaneously. We employ the Evalvid framework and develop a methodology for its use in multi-client evaluations. We report our results for Variable Bit Rate (VBR) and Constant Bit Rate (CBR) video streams and draw conclusions.