WiMAX Cell Level Simulation Platform Based on ns-2 and DSP Integration

The WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) system based on the IEEE 802.16 family of standards is a promising technology for last-mile access. Both IEEE 802.16 and 3GPP-LTE systems candidate for becoming the 4G network of choice. The need to evaluate multiple performance enhancing techniques like MIMO, OFDM(A), novel channel coding schemes like non-binary LDPC codes, together with development of standards like IEEE 802.21, that aims at enabling handover and interoperability between heterogeneous network types, make rapid prototyping-based simulations an important issue. This paper presents a novel approach to 4G-oriented simulation environment that integrates popular network simulator (ns-2) and a Digital Signal Processing (DSP) to enable comprehensive link layer and cell level simulations. Proposed simulation environment is intended as an evaluation platform for assessing QoS/QoE and Connection Admission Control (CAC) algorithms designed for WiMAX systems. Moreover we study ways to improve simulation time (with focus on AWGN channel simulation) by using CUDA parallel processing technology for NVIDIA graphic cards.