QoS-guaranteed transmission mode selection for efficient resource utilization in multi-hop cellular networks

This paper considers the problem of efficient usage of subcarriers in downlink orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) multi-hop cellular networks. Multi-hop transmission can either save or waste subcarriers depending on quality of service (QoS) requirements, interference from other cells, and the location of a given mobile station (MS). Preventing unnecessary usage of multi-hop transmission requires the use of a transmission mode selection (TMS) scheme, and we propose two types of TMS in this paper. The first of these is distance-based TMS (TMS-D), which determines the transmission mode based on the MSiquests location, and the second is subcarrier-based TMS (TMS-S), which selects whichever transmission mode uses fewer subcarriers. Numerical results on blocking probability demonstrate that TMS improves overall subcarrier usage efficiency, meaning that more MSs can be supported with low blocking probability within a cell. Furthermore, the performance of TMSS, even given its higher complexity, is shown to be superior to that of TMS-D.