Spatial uplink mobile data offloading leveraging storecarry- Forward paradigm

The growing popularity of mobile data communication has been leading a growing lack of radio resource on a cellular network. Therefore, to avoid the data traffic from exceeding the capacity limit of a cellular base station (BS), cellular operators have been trying to install cellular femto cells (local BSs) or wireless LAN access points (APs) in restaurants, cafes, user's houses, etc., to divert data traffic from the cellular radio access link to the fixedline such as x-DSL and FTTH. However, the traffic levels extremely change in a day, even locally, due to the mobility of users. While peak data traffic at certain times of a day appears locally, cellular BSs as well as the femto cells and the APs would sit underutilized for the rest of the day. Thus, we have started designing a robust cellular network (RoCNet) that combines infrastructure-based network (e.g., cellular network) and opportunistic networking for spatial mobile data offloading, which focuses on the difference of the data traffic level among areas (e.g., business district and residential area). The RoCNet facilitates the data traffic offloading leveraging the storecarry-forward feature considering a degree of traffic congestion. In this paper, we give an overview of the RoCNet and show a simulation result. The result shows RoCNet can spatially offload uplink traffic in a traffic concentration area to non-congested areas. In other words, RoCNet can suppress peak traffic in a traffic-congested base station by distributing traffic to vicinity base stations.