Multi-hop cellular networks: The architecture and routing protocols

Multi-hop Cellular Network (MCN) is an architecture recently proposed by Lin and Hsu for wireless communications. MCNs combine the benefits of having a fixed infrastructure of base stations and the flexibility of ad-hoc networks. They are capable of achieving much higher throughput than current cellular systems, which can be classified as Single-hop Cellular Networks (SCNs). This work concentrates on MCNs and SCNs using the IEEE 802.11 standard for wireless LANs. We provide a general overview of the architecture and the issues involved in the design of MCNs, in particular the challenges to be met in the design of a routing protocol. We extend the work of Lin and Hsu to enhance the throughput of such networks further. We propose a routing protocol for use in such networks. We conduct extensive experimental studies on the performance of MCNs and SCNs under various load conditions (both TCP and UDP). These studies dearly indicate that MCNs with the proposed routing protocol are a viable alternative for SCNs, in fact they provide much higher throughput.