Resource Management in Multi-hop Mobile Small Cell Networks

The deployment of mobile small cells has been identified as an effective strategy in delivering high data rates and providing seamless connectivity to a group of vehicular users. Although this approach can facilitate high data rates and ubiquitous wireless access, it introduces a new set of challenges, for instance, frequent changes in the interference set, requirements for more spectrum, high energy consumption and frequent handover. In this paper, we present a multi-hop mobile small cell network (SCN) that can facilitate wireless access to mobile nodes that do have direct transmission links to small cell base stations. We then formulate a solution to the frequency allocation problem for a multi-hop mobile SCN based on an optimization model. Considering the complexity of the optimization solution, we present a backhaul-aware frequency allocation solution based on the time-varying graph coloring concept. Simulation results confirm that the proposed solution outperforms an existing greedy solution by a significant margin in terms of throughput, spectral efficiency and fairness index.