System-Level Performance of Cellular Multihop Relaying with Multiuser Scheduling

Multihop relaying in cellular networks is seen as a viable strategy to address the need for higher data rates and better coverage. In this paper, we analyze the system-level performance of multicellular multihop networks in the presence of co-channel interference, and build upon prior work in the research conducted by O. Oyman, et. al (2006) which considered multihop relaying in a single-cell setting. Considering an opportunistic hop-count routing algorithm, we study cellular sum capacity under different multiuser scheduling algorithms such as MaxCap, proportional fair, and round robin. We numerically investigate the competing interaction between multihop diversity and multiuser diversity, and discuss the areal diversity aspect as a byproduct of multihop relaying. Finally, we provide further practical design insights on cellular planning through our empirical results on interference statistics in multicellular multihop networks.