Cross-Layer Architecture

WiMAX is the most promising technology of recent years; it can be the technology that resolves some problems related to the spread of wireless service. When thinking of the concept of service, the most important related issue is the QoS (Quality of Service). Behind WiMAX, there is the IEEE 802.16 protocol (IEEE 802.16, 2004), which provides some basic mechanisms to guarantee QoS. This chapter aims to explore these mechanisms, but it also attempts to highlight the absence of some elements in the protocol or those components in it that can be improved. The protocol can be optimized and in the last part of chapter we show how to improve it using a set of algorithms collected by literature. Finally, it is explained how instruments not designed to be applied to the world of wireless, such as games theory or fuzzy logic, can be used to deal with wireless issues.