Provisioning Services in Multihop Cellular Networks when the End-Users Are in the Mobile Ad-Hoc Network Portion

Multihop cellular networks (MCNs) are networks that integrate a traditional 3G single-hop cellular network and a mobile ad-hoc network (MANET). They have attractive benefits, chiefly performance and flexibility. Therefore, many researches are now addressing MCNs in a variety of ways. This paper targets the service provisioning aspects in MCNs. It proposes a novel architecture that allows users in a MANET to access 3G services while the services are executed in the MANET. The benefits of this approach on the service execution process are gains in speed, load balancing, and overcoming connection difficulties between 3Gs and MANETs. The paper presents the architecture's functional entities, principles and a scenario. A prototype as a proof-of-concept is also described.