Connections WiMAX is a connection-oriented protocol, where all communications between
two devices are in the context of a predefined connection. Connections are used
for user data, management, and multicast and broadcast traffic. This is unlike many
other networking protocols, such as Ethernet and WiFi, which are connectionless and
are often contention based.
Each connection is identified by a Connection ID (CID). The 16-bit CID allows for
64K connections in each channel, some of which are reserved for specific purposes such
as broadcast traffic and initial ranging. There can be (and there always are) multiple
connections between a BS and SS, while a common CID may be used for communication
between a BS and multiple SSs (for multicast and broadcast traffic).
Connections (and CIDs) are very central to the operation of WiMAX MAC. All services
(and service flows, which are discussed in the following section), including management
services, are associated with their unique connection. Services provided to higher
layer protocols are mapped to specific connections. Connections are also the entities for
which bandwidths are requested and reserved.
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