Moving Relays in Heterogeneous Cellular Networks—A Coverage Performance Analysis

A large number of today's cellular users are vehicular, i.e., traveling in public transports. To improve the weak received signal of vehicular users and to mitigate vehicle penetration loss, researchers have recently proposed the use of moving relays (MRs). People in vehicles can use these MRs that are mounted on top of public transports for better communication. Recent research on MRs, however, is mainly limited to providing performance analysis of vehicular users. The effect of these relays on current heterogeneous cellular networks has yet to be studied. In this paper, we develop a system model for a downlink heterogeneous cellular network, which includes MRs. We derive the coverage probability of macro users, vehicular users, and the overall network. We also show that, in addition to providing better coverage to vehicular users, MRs can also enhance coverage of nonvehicular boundary users with the help of cooperative communication.