A Novel Architecture for Multihop Relaying in 3GPP LTE and 5G Networks

Abstract

Multihop relaying with mobility support is a long due necessity in a cellular network. Researchers have made proposals to enable multihop relaying in the LTE network, but it garnered a little interest from the industry as these proposals require significant modifications in the standard network elements and signaling procedures. With the advent of 5G, the multihop relaying has become essential. This work proposes a novel architecture that supports multihop relay communications in 3GPP LTE and 5G networks. We introduce two new nodes into the network, namely Relay Node and Proxy-eNB (ProxygNB, resp.), that constitute radio and core stack of an eNB (gNB, resp.). These nodes are connected via LTE (5G, resp.) IP network and in conjunction provide eNB (gNB, resp.) functionality to the UE connected to a relay node. The architecture does not need modifications to any standard network element, and control and user data plane procedures. Further, the new nodes reuse the existing standard interfaces to communicate either on the radio or to the core network. We also provide handover procedures due to UE and/or relay mobility.