Presumptive Routing for Multihop Wireless Systems

High-data-rate cellular systems, such as 1xEvolution-data only (1xEV-DO), can provide data at high rates to users, but generally, these high rates will only be available to users with good links from the base station (BS). Using multihop, where a relay can receive and retransmit a signal to the destination, has the potential to improve the data rates for users with poor links from the BS. In this paper, we propose a method for implementing two-hop relaying on the downlink of a high-data-rate system. Unlike conventional routing algorithms, our method (called presumptive routing) exploits multiuser diversity by selecting the target user after the relay has been selected. This means that the interference experienced by a user does not have to be predicted because it can be determined through the use of pilot signals. The signaling overhead is not much greater than that of conventional high-data-rate systems. We give results for the performance of presumptive routing and compare these to those of single-hop and ideal two-hop systems.