Abstract
In this article we present an optimal Markov Decision-based Call Admission Control (MD-CAC) policy for the multimedia services that characterize the next generation of wireless cellular networks. A Markov decision process (MDP) is used to represent the CAC policy. The MD-CAC is formulated as a linear programming problem with the objectives of maximizing the system utilization while ensuring class differentiation and providing quantitative fairness guarantees among different classes of users. Through simulation, we show that the MD-CAC policy potentially achieves the optimal decisions. Hence our proposed MD-CAC policy satisfies its design goals in terms of call-class-differentiation, fairness and system utilization. Copyright (c) 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.