Relaying Capability-Based Routing for Improving Service Availability in Multi- hop Cellular Networks

Multi-hop cellular networking models that integrate the characteristics of both cellular and mobile ad hoc networks have received increasing attention. Finding an available relaying path is a critical prerequisite for the success of the multi-hop cellular networks. Most works use signal strength, path length and power consumption as routing criteria to select a relaying path for a mobile node reaching the central base station. Such methods cannot react effectively to the individual impact of each intermediate mobile node contributing to successful hop-by-hop connections. Moreover, forwarding data for others utilizes the resources of the mobile nodes such as battery energy, link bandwidth, buffer space and processing time, the mobile nodes may accept only a limited number of relaying requests. This paper presents a novel routing scheme based on the relaying capability of each mobile node to decrease call blocking probability and handoff call blocking probability, therefore enhancing service availability in the networks. Simulation results indicate that the proposed routing scheme results in higher service availability than the shortest-path routing scheme under a certain constraint on maximum relaying capacity of each mobile node.