Multihop Cellular Networks: Potential Gains, Research Challenges, and a Resource Allocation Framework

Recently, there has been increasing interest in integrating multihop relaying functionalities into cellular wireless networks. Multihop cellular networks can potentially enhance coverage, data rates, QoS performance in terms of call blocking probability, bit error rate, as well as QoS fairness for different users. However, in-depth investigations and careful system designs are required to exploit these potential advantages. Specifically, routing and resource allocation algorithms should be designed such that the maximum performance gain can be achieved. A number of different architectures, protocols, and analytical models for MCNs have been proposed in the literature where different system aspects were investigated. This article aims to present an overview of existing work in this area, pointing out key research issues and their possible solutions. Also, we present a resource allocation framework for out-of- band relaying. The throughput enhancement due to the proposed framework is demonstrated through numerical results.