An analysis of mobile relaying for coverage extension

This paper considers the coverage extension that mobile relays offer to an isolated base station. The relays are modelled as realizations of a two dimensional Poisson process with random motion, and as such their availability to forward messages received from a base station or from out-of-range mobiles is open to analysis. Two important performance metrics are derived: the probability of establishing a route and the expected duration that a route or connection can be sustained via a two hop coverage extension. The results provide insights into the benefits mobile relays can offer in terms of assisting users far away from the base station.