Dynamic Time Slot Partitioning for Multimedia Transmission in Two-Hop Cellular Networks

In recent years, there has been an exponential increase in the number of mobile phone users. In addition, a significant growth in the demand for high-rate multimedia services over wireless networks, such as video conferencing, multimedia streaming, etc., was noted. Different solutions were proposed to support high-quality high data rate delivery to mobile users, including resource allocation techniques for packet-radio-based next generation cellular networks. In this paper, an efficient time slot allocation method-Dynamic Time Slot Partitioning (DTSP) algorithm based on statistical multiplexing is proposed for a two-hop cellular architecture. In DTSP, the available bandwidth resources are increased by partitioning each time slot into several minislots wherein different numbers of minislots are allocated to different users. The DTSP algorithm is based on asynchronous time-division multiplexing, wherein users with variable number of packets in their buffers can transmit data sequentially without any loss in the overall available resources. The key advantage of DTSP is that it can flexibly adapt to different quality of service requirements, especially when combined with adaptive modulation. It has been observed that the system capacity achieved by the DTSP algorithm in the downlink mode using adaptive modulation is up to 41 percent higher than when existing solutions are employed. In addition, DTSP results in significantly lower time for data transmission than the state-of-the-art region and time partitioning techniques.