Energy-Efficient Client Relay Scheme for Machine-to-Machine Communication

In this paper, we consider a wireless cellular network capable of supporting Machine-to-Machine (M2M) applications. According to the recent IEEE 802.16p proposals, a wireless M2M device may act as an aggregation point and communicate data packets on behalf of the other M2M devices, which may lack a cellular interface or have a poor communication link to the network. We propose a client relay scheme to improve the link reliability and energy efficiency for devices with weak links. Performance of the proposed scheme is evaluated through analysis and simulation across several metrics covering client throughput, latency, and energy consumption. Our analytical approach is a novel queueing model that captures realistic traffic arrival patterns borrowed from the evaluation methodology. It is shown that the obtained analytical results demonstrate excellent agreement with simulation. We also conclude that the proposed client relay scheme may save power for devices with poor communication link.