DISTRIBUTED RELAY FOR MULTI-HOP COMMUNICATION NETWORK

摘要

Radio coverage in areas with normally poor radio conditions can be improved using distributed relay nodes to relay communications between the base station and user terminal. The distributed relay node comprises two main functional components interconnected by a local area network. The functional components of the relay node comprise a terminal part that appears to the serving base station as another user terminal, and a base station part that appears to the user terminal as a base station. The terminal part and base station part of the relay node can be remotely located and interconnected by an existing local area network based IP protocols. A packet delivery mechanism transfers data packets between the terminal part and base station part of the relay node in a manner that is transparent to the rest of the mobile communication network.