Cooperative architecture for cellular-short-range combined mesh networks

Due to the nature of wireless communications, a single radio access technology (RAT) hardly satisfies all communication needs. RATs are roughly divided into two types: cellular and short-range. It becomes increasing popular to equip a mobile device with both types of air interfaces. By seamlessly integrating different types of air interfaces into a single network, a new mobile communication model emerges. Benefit from the mesh structure interweaved by cellular and short-range links, the new model is able to enjoy reliability, flexibility, coverage extension and enhanced service. Although several architectures have been proposed based on this model, a practical control solution for seamless integration of cellular and short-range systems is still absent. We propose in this paper a novel cooperative architecture with a control plane backed by cellular systems. A dedicated control unit is developed to tightly control the user cooperation of mobile devices using their short-range links. In addition to the architecture design, we propose two services based on the proposed architecture. It shows the potential of the architecture to carry new services, especially, multimedia services.