3.3 Medium Access Control Common Part Sublayer (MAC CPS)

The Common Part Sublayer (CPS) resides in the middle of the MAC layer. The CPS represents the core of the MAC protocol and is responsible for:

bandwidth allocation;
connection establishment;
maintenance of the connection between the two sides.

The 802.16-2004 standard defines a set of management and transfer messages. The management messages are exchanged between the SS and the BS before and during the establishment of the connection. When the connection is realised, the transfer messages can be exchanged to allow the data transmission.

The CPS receives data from the various CSs, through the MAC SAP, classified to particular MAC connections. The QoS is taken into account for the transmission and scheduling of data over the PHY Layer. The CPS includes many procedures of different types: frame construction, multiple access, bandwidth demands and allocation, scheduling, radio resource management, QoS management, etc. These functions are detailed in Chapters 8 to 11.