An application of uplink common channel to packet relay in CDMA radio access networks

Multihop techniques in CDMA radio access networks, enable dead-spot mobile stations, which cannot communicate with base stations directly, to send data to them via other mobile stations. In this paper, we propose a mechanism for establishing connections and relaying packets between mobile stations. In this mechanism, the mobile stations are connected to one another and relay packets through a random access channel, which is an uplink common channel. In addition, our mechanism satisfies the requirements for applying multihop techniques to third generation radio access networks. Moreover, we also discuss our evaluation of the performance of the mechanism through computer simulations. The results we obtained reveal that it is capable of reducing dead-spot mobile stations and improving throughput with only limited modifications to conventional systems. Furthermore, we propose an adaptive transmission power control to enhance our mechanism and also evaluate this method through computer simulations.