HiperLAN/2 multihop ad hoc communication by multiple-frequency forwarding

The HiperLAN/2 (H/2) standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) provides high bit rate communication in the 5 GHz frequency band. Beside an infrastructure based networking mode, the profile for the home environments follows the concept of a one hop ad hoc network topology. Each so called single subnet is coordinated by a central controller whereby all H/2 home devices are capable of this functionality. In order to overcome the restrictions of the one hop configuration, this paper presents a novel multiple-frequency forwarding technique enabling intersubnet links and extending the one hop to a multihop ad hoc connectivity. Especially, the "alternating forwarder" approach, considering more than one forwarder terminal, achieves nearly continuous inter-subnet communication with convincing throughput and delay characteristics