The Capacity of the Single Source Multiple Relay Single Destination Mesh Network

TL;DR

This paper derives the capacity of a specific mesh network model with one source, multiple relays, and one destination, demonstrating the effectiveness of relay cooperation and compress-forward strategies in wireless networks.

Contribution

It provides the first capacity characterization for the single source multiple relay single destination mesh network using information-theoretic bounds and achievable strategies.

Findings

Capacity is achievable asymptotically with compress-forward.

Relays can conserve energy or increase transmission rates.

Results highlight the importance of relay cooperation in wireless networks.

Abstract

In this paper, we derive the capacity of a special class of mesh networks. A mesh network is defined as a heterogeneous wireless network in which the transmission among power limited nodes is assisted by powerful relays, which use the same wireless medium. We find the capacity of the mesh network when there is one source, one destination, and multiple relays. We call this channel the single source multiple relay single destination (SSMRSD) mesh network. Our approach is as follows. We first look at an upper bound on the information theoretic capacity of these networks in the Gaussian setting. We then show that the bound is achievable asymptotically using the compress-forward strategy for the multiple relay channel. Theoretically, the results indicate the value of cooperation and the utility of carefully deployed relays in wireless ad-hoc and sensor networks. The capacity characterization quantifies how the relays can be used to either conserve node energy or to increase transmission rate.