Achieving the benefits of high-capacity of optical networks and the mobility feature of wireless networks leads to integrate EPON and WiMAX for a promising broadband access solution. To efficiently put both benefits together, we propose an integration architecture of EPON-WiMAX based upon a Distributed Antenna (DA) environment, where collaborative Base Stations (BSs) concurrently transmit same wireless downlink signals (specifically for multicast and broadcast services (MBSs)) to Mobile Stations (MSs) in overlapped cell coverage areas. It helps enlarge the region of the available network coverage area by increasing Signal to Interference and Noise Ratio (SINR) in overlapped cell coverage areas through cooperation between Optical Line Terminal (OLT) and Optical Network Unit (ONU)- BS. We also present an cost-efficient cell planning to optimally control the size of overlapped cell coverage areas for the proposed DA-based integration architecture with a case study under a required region of the available network coverage area in consideration of the number of ONU-BSs and the distance between ONU-BSs. Performance evaluation results show that the proposed DA-based integration architecture enhances cost efficiency compared to the Traditional Antenna (TA) (non-DA)-based integration architecture with a similar level of spectral efficiency of MSs.

A Power-Saving Mechanism (PSM) operates with sleep-mode and wake-mode, based on the receipt of requests for transition to each mode. The sleep-mode operation is manipulated by adjusting operating parameters such as the minimum sleep interval (Tmin) and the maximum sleep interval (Tmax). Interestingly, both energy consumption and the response delay of the request for a BS initiation of awakening are reciprocally affected by the relative sizes of these two operating parameters compared to the sleep duration (from the beginning of sleep-mode to that of wake-mode). To resolve this issue, this paper proposes a new PSM, called EPSM, which adaptively and simultaneously controls the operating parameters by efficiently reflecting the sleep duration. Moreover, depending on the current remaining energy state, this mechanism can also increase the available sizes of the operating parameters to be manipulated for achieving more intensive energy conservation. A numerical model is developed with a Markov chain for performance evaluation of the proposed mechanism pertaining to energy consumption and the response delay. The evaluation results substantiate that this mechanism can enhance energy conservation within reasonable response delay compared to the standard mechanism. Moreover, under an insufficient remaining energy state, the EPSM can prolong battery life while enduring an increasing response delay.

The sleep-mode operation in power management helps to increase the life of a mobile station by saving energy consumption while it increases the MAC service data unit (SDU) response delay. Due to the trade-off relationship between these two performance metrics, it is important to determine the suitable values for two operating parameters, the initial sleep interval (Tmin) and the final sleep interval (Tmax), which manipulate the sleep-mode operation in the IEEE 802.16e MAC. To reach a fuller understanding of this problem, this paper first presents the sleep-mode operation. A new power management mechanism based on the knowledge on remaining energy in a mobile subscriber station (MSS) is then proposed. Benefits of this mechanism are to reduce the MAC SDU response delay under sufficient energy and to increase the life of a station under insufficient remaining energy. An analytical model for sleep-mode operation is developed, and the proposed mechanism is validated by computer simulation.