2. Its about small cells !!
● Next generation deployment exploit the idea of idea of
small cells, low power and bit of ad-hoc coverage
● Enablers are the broadband back-haul and the ALL-IP design
of cellular networks (LTE & WIMAX)
● One of primary concern to use MOBILE as a small BASESTATION to relay in FDD is the difference in the
uplink/downlink frequency
● Mobile's RF front-end is designed to receive and transmit at
a certain bands
● Mobile Adhoc network had been a popular research area
around 2000
● Around April2008, heard about this company http://www.
terranet.se/ demonstrating a peer 2 peer call !!
3. What now ?
New hand-held terminals have become more smart
● Processor speeds with 1GHz available now
● Supports MIMO capabilities (Form factor)
● Much better operating systems (unix) comparable with
PC functionalities
● TDD version of LTE & WIMAX available
○ Leading to single RF frontend
○ Tx-Rx is software controlled switch !!
● Relays - which used to be a research topic is now widely
accepted and supported in 4G standards
● Typically a TDD frame is divided into multiple slots and the
n/w configures the DL:UL proportion (DL - slots for
downlink, UL:slots for uplink)
4. Converting mobile terminal to relay
Why not convert the 4G mobiles part of mesh network ?
● Capability of terminal to function as a relay or a
data originator
● Could be transparent to n/w or by requesting grant from
n/w to transmit in the downlink duration of macro
● Challenges : Minimize interference to macro connected
terminals when transmitting in a downlink slot
● Possible solution :
○ Macro allows certain downlink slots for allowing p2p
communications.
○ Exploit spatial diversity
5. Opening up posibilities
● Any UE can behave as small streaming server
● Enable p2p communication
● Provide emergency services
○ Macro coverage is limited by providing multi-hop links
○ Extend data to adjacent sector macro when a sector is
fully loaded
● Sharing wired or wifi based backhaul between a small user
groups
● Social networking kind of applications
○ Broadcast route/direction request to UE within a small
region
○ Foursquare kind of apps can now locally !!
6. Comments
Share your thoughts with me...
The slides put up here are a very top-level thoughts on mesh
network within mobiles
Communicate on the first slide..
