A Simple and Efficient Data Forwarding Mechanism In Wireless Relay Networks

Wireless relay network is a low-cost solution for extending the service coverage and increasing the throughput of the conventional single-hop wireless network. By deploying a relay network, a base station (BS) can provide services to subscriber stations (SSs) through relay links. The functionality of a relay station (RS) is simpler than a BS, and RSs only forward packets between SSs, RSs and the BS without too much packet processing. However, current solutions require a RS to store and process the packet before it can determine the destination, and thus introduce extra processing and buffering overheads on the RS. This study proposes a simple and efficient forwarding scheme which multiplexes bursts to the SSs attached to the same access RS. By applying the proposed end-to-end burst switching mechanism, the RS merely checks the frame header and can decide the final destination without packet processing. The experiment results demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed scheme than other approaches.