Power consumption reduction by multi-hop transmission in cellular networks

Multi-hop transmission breaks the single-hop path from a mobile station to the base station into two or more hops. In this case, distances between transmitters and receivers are smaller than that in the direct transmission case, hence it is expected that transmit power will be greatly reduced. In this paper, we analyze the probability that a mobile station can find its relay, and the average power consumption of mobile stations and their relays compared to the power consumption in case of direct transmission. As the number of relaying stations increases, it is highly probable that mobile stations can find their relay and save power. The gain of power saving through a two-hop relay is much greater when the path loss becomes greater.