Relay Multi-hop Communications in 5G Cellular Networks

Dear Colleagues,

During the next years, the rapid increase in data-traffic consumption by cellular users will require to implement new connectivity schemes that guarantee acceptable levels of QoS and reliability. Multi-hop relaying in 5G cellular networking, with and without the direct intervention of the infrastructure, is foreseen to revolutionize the way connections will be established, combining the traditional centralized schemes of connectivity (where users connect exclusively through their nearest Base Station, or at most from a fixed relay station), with the new paradigm of Device-to-Device (D2D) networking (in which users are allowed to communicate peer-to-peer through direct links that do not necessarily involve the intervention of a Base Station). According to several research studies, the benefits of this new approach are numerous: higher spectrum efficiency, better fairness in resource allocation, energy efficient usage, among others. However, this novel approach for wireless cellular networking faces the challenge of distributed management of communications, subject to mobility, in which end-user terminals will play a more active role in the self-configuration of the network.

Authors are invited to submit papers presenting technical challenges, comprehensive in-depth tutorial surveys, standardization efforts and new research results related to the theory or practice of Relay Multi-hop Communications in Cellular Networks to this special issue on “Relay Multi-hop Communications in 5G Cellular Networks”, to be published in the open-access journal “Future Internet” ISSN 1999-5903. Authors participating in the “1st International Workshop on Relay Multi-hop Communications in 5G Cellular Networks (REMCELL 2014),” held in conjunction with “10th International Conference on Wireless and Mobile Computing, Networking and Communications (WiMob 2014)” will have the chance to submit an extended version of their papers to this special issue.

The workshop’s website is available at www.remcell.com

Juan-Bautista Tomás-Gabarrón
Yacine Ghamri-Doudane
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

• distributed power and interference management
• energy-harvesting aware protocols in multi-hop relaying networks
• distributed radio resource management and scheduling
• relay selection and maintenance under mobility
• recent advances in 3gpp release-12 standardization related to network relaying
• device-initiated versus infrastructure-coordinated link establishment
• distributed cognitive and cooperative radio
• mobility, traffic and channel models for multi-hop relaying in cellular networks
• distributed forward error correction algorithms
• inter-radio access technologies interfacing
• mac mechanisms and algorithms for distributed multi-hop relaying in cellular networks
• security, confidentiality and reliability of information
• routing protocols in multi-hop relaying networks
• load balancing with and without infrastructure
• relay networking for public safety communications
• social networks and general applications in relay networking for cellular networks
• business models for relay networking in cellular networks