Hand-off performance of the Integrated Cellular and Ad Hoc Relaying (iCAR) system

In this paper, we study the hand-off performance of a wireless system with heterogeneous technologies called iCAR (Integrated Cellular and Ad hoc Relaying). In iCAR, hand-offs can occur not only from a Base Transceiver Station (BTS) to another BTS, but also from a BTS to a so-called Ad hoc Relaying Station (ARS) in the form of relaying, as well as from an ARS back to a BTS. The latter two types of hand-offs effectively increase the hand-off buffer time and thus reduce the call dropping probability. We develop an analytical model for the hand-off performance in iCAR. In addition, we verify the analytical model via simulations and quantify the hand-off performance benefits of the iCAR system over conventional cellular systems. It is anticipated that the analytical and simulation models reported in this paper will serve as a guideline to other researches on the inter-system hand-off involving heterogenous wireless technologies.