Multihop cellular networks: Technology and economics

Recently, multihop cellular networks (MCNs) were proposed to preserve the advantages of traditional single-hop cellular networks with multihop ad hoc relaying networks, while minimizing the drawbacks that they involved. In this way, MCNs enhance the performance of both the existing cellular networks and ad hoc networks. Consequently, MCN-type system is considered as a promising candidate of fourth generation (4G) wireless network for future mobile communications. This paper surveys a number of MCN-type architectures in literature through a comprehensive comparison and discussion among the proposed architectures. The discussion is divided into two phases. In the first phase, we review the concept of MCN and compare the selected MCN-type architectures from a technology perspective. In the second phase, we further compare and discuss the economic perspective on the deployment of MCNs. Specifically, we focus on the economic considerations for deploying relays in MCN-type systems.