Resource delegation and rewards to stimulate forwarding in multihop cellular networks

Multihop cellular networks that base the forwarding process on user terminals are challenged by a lack of forwarding incentive. In this paper, we present the novel concept of resource delegation which, applied in combination with pricing based rewards, guarantees both the separation of resources between originating transmitters and relays and the economic compensation of the energy investments of the relays. The results show that this strategy leads to the definition of a broad region of prices in which multihopping solutions can achieve the following advantages over classical single-hop architectures: operator's revenues and provided data rates increase significantly, the users' appreciation of the service is enhanced, and the average interference level of the network is lowered.