Applying analytical hierarchy process (AHP) to build a model to evaluate WiMax performance

Abstract

Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) is widely adopted in the market as a result of the availability of smart phones and an increasing demand of bandwidth-reliant data such as video wireless applications. WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is one of the BWA technologies that have been widely adopted by wireless operators and there are currently a lot of discussions about the performance of individual feature of the technology, yet there is no quantitative measure of the WiMax technology that can be applied to the wireless operator in meeting their design objectives. This research outlines a set of design criteria for BWA, involving 8 wireless operators from various countries to rank the importance of the criteria using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) as decision aid. The ranking represents the market expectation of the relative importance of various design criteria. By integrating the AHP model using the enhanced Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), frontier analysis allows the formation of Technology efficiency to be used in the performance measurement model for WiMax network. A case study of a WiMax operator is to illustrate how the technology value is used to evaluate their 3 years network deployment plan. The future research will extend to WiMax equipment suppliers in order to validate individual criteria's performance target and leverage the suppliers' technology roadmap for future network enhancement.

Date of Award	15 Feb 2012
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	City University of Hong Kong
Supervisor	Kim Fung TSANG (Supervisor)