On the Capacity Gain of Multi-Hop Cellular Networks with Opportunistic Networking and D2D: a Space-Time Graph-based Evaluation

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that device-centric wireless technologies, including multi-hop cellular networks (MCNs) and device-to-device (D2D) communications, can increase the cellular network capacity. This study progresses the current state of the art by deriving (using space-time graphs) the upperbound capacity gains that can be further achieved when integrating efficiency-driven opportunistic networking into device-centric wireless networks. The increase is obtained without modifying the radio interface, and is not constrained to any particular radio interface.