Serving node selection in wireless multi-hop cellular system

The introduction of multi-hop relaying to cellular networks can enhance system performances. It supports not only the high data rate but also the service coverage extension while maintaining the deployment cost down. The primary advantage of the multi-hop relaying comes from the reduction in the overall path loss between base station and mobile station. On the other hand, the redundancy resource is needed for relay because the relay station cannot receive and transmit with the same resource concurrently. That is, there is a tradeoff between the path loss reduction and the increase in required resource for relay. This paper proposes a new serving node selection method which can be used in systems with fixed relay station. The proposed algorithm enables a mobile station to be connected with the node (base station or relay station) which supports the highest data rate. It is based on least-cost criterion, which minimizes the Estimated Service Time. To evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm, we analyze the performances of proposed scheme numerically. The results of analysis show that our proposed scheme enhances the system performances in view of throughput and fairness.