Opportunistic Networking for Improving the Energy Efficiency of Multi-Hop Cellular Networks

Relaying technologies can help address the capacity and energy-efficiency challenges faced by cellular networks as a result of the rapid increase in mobile data consumption. A nonnegligible portion of such consumption corresponds to delay tolerant services. This delay tolerance offers the possibility for opportunistic networking to exploit contact opportunities between mobile devices in order to reduce the impact of data traffic on the cellular capacity and energy-efficiency without sacrificing the end-user quality of service. In this context, this paper investigates the use of opportunistic forwarding in MCNMR (Multi-hop Cellular Networks with Mobile Relays) to reduce energy consumption in the case of delay tolerant services. The study proposes to exploit context information provided at a low cost by the cellular infrastructure to efficiently select the forwarding node in a two-hop MCN-MR scenario. The proposed solution results in significant energy savings compared to traditional single-hop cellular communications and other forwarding solutions reported in the literatureThis work is supported in part by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and FEDER funds (TEC201126109),and the Local Government of Valencia with reference ACIF/2010/161 and BEFPI/2012/06

Store, carry and forward for energy efficiency in multi-hop cellular networks with mobile relays

Abstract The wide scale adoption of smartphones is boosting cellular data traffic with the consequent capacity constraints of cellular systems and increase in energy consumption. A significant portion of cellular data traffic can be deemed as delay tolerant. Such tolerance offers possibilities for designing novel communications and networking solutions that can accommodate the delay tolerant cellular data traffic while reducing their impact on the overall cellular capacity and energy consumption. In this context, this work studies the use of opportunistic store, carry and forward techniques in Multi-Hop Cellular Networks (MCN) to reduce energy consumption for delay tolerant traffic. The study focuses on two-hop MCN networks using mobile relays (MCN-MR), and identifies the optimum mobile relay location and the location from which the relay should start forwarding the information to the cellular base station in order to minimize the overall energy consumption. The study shows that the use of opportunistic store, carry and forward techniques in MCN-MR can significantly reduce energy consumption compared to other solutions, including traditional single-hop cellular systems or direct contact store, carry and forward solutions.This work is supported in part by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and FEDER funds (TEC2011–26109)and the Local Government of Valencia with reference ACIF/2010/161 and BEFPI/2012/06

From MANET to people-centric networking: Milestones and open research challenges

In this paper, we discuss the state of the art of (mobile) multi-hop ad hoc networking with the aim to present the current status of the research activities and identify the consolidated research areas, with limited research opportunities, and the hot and emerging research areas for which further research is required. We start by briefly discussing the MANET paradigm, and why the research on MANET protocols is now a cold research topic. Then we analyze the active research areas. Specifically, after discussing the wireless-network technologies, we analyze four successful ad hoc networking paradigms, mesh networks, opportunistic networks, vehicular networks, and sensor networks that emerged from the MANET world. We also present an emerging research direction in the multi-hop ad hoc networking field: people centric networking, triggered by the increasing penetration of the smartphones in everyday life, which is generating a people-centric revolution in computing and communications

Mode Selection for 5G Heterogeneous and Opportunistic Networks

5G and beyond networks will offer multiple communication modes including device-to-device and multi-hop cellular (or UE-to-network relay) communications. Several studies have shown that these modes can signi_cantly improve the Quality of Service (QoS), the spectrum and energy ef_ciency, and the network capacity. Recent studies have demonstrated that further gains can be achieved when integrating demand-driven opportunistic networking into Multi-Hop Cellular Networks (MCN). In opportunistic MCN connections, devices can exploit the delay tolerance of many mobile data services to search for the most ef_cient connections between nodes. The availability of multiple communication modes requires mode selection schemes capable to decide the optimum mode for each transmission. Mode selection schemes have been previously proposed to account for the introduction of D2D and MCN. However, existing mode selection schemes cannot integrate opportunistic MCN connections into the selection process. This paper advances the state of the art by proposing the _rst mode selection scheme capable to integrate opportunistic MCN communications within 5G and beyond networks. The conducted analysis demonstrates the potential of opportunistic MCN communications, and the capability of the proposed mode selection scheme to select the most adequate communication mode.This work was supported in part by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness, AEI, and FEDER funds under Grant TEC2017-88612-RGrant TEC2014-57146-Rand in part by the Generalitat Valenciana under Grant GV/2016/049