Assessing Capacity Improvements by Relaying in Cellular Networks

Relaying — allowing multiple wireless hops — is a protocol extension for cellular networks conceived to improve data throughput. Its benefits have only been quantified for small example networks. For assessing its general potential, we define a complex resource allocation/scheduling problem. Several mathematical models are presented for this problem; while a time-expanded MIP approach turns out intractable, a sophisticated column generation scheme leads to good computational results. We thereby show that for selected cases relaying can increase data throughput by 30% on the average.