[Discuss-gnuradio] Cellular relay

[Aaditeshwar Seth]

Hi,

My question is not directly connected with the SDR radio, but I think 
there might be people on this list who will be able to help me. Or, 
point me to a right place to put forth my questions.

You must be aware of research efforts made for cellular ad hoc relay 
systems which suggested a slightly modified (or an extra) radio on 
cellphones that could enable ad hoc communication directly between 
cellphones, or from a cellphone to a thin relay. 
http://csdl2.computer.org/comp//proceedings/hicss/2002/1435/09/14350300.pdf

The reason why a radio modification is required for such systems is that 
the chipsets on cellphones are hardwired to communicate to the 
infrastructure only. Dual mode cellphones can however get around this 
problem by enabling ad hoc communication on the WiFi interface instead. 
http://www.bell-labs.com/user/ramjee/papers/ucan.pdf

I was however thinking that low bandwidth ad hoc communication might 
still be possible on the cellular GPRS/CDMA interface by using a low 
cost relay access point that pretends to be a real access point. For 
example, the paging channel or the low bandwidth data channel could be 
used with SMS as a transport layer. I am not sure, but I think this goes 
unencrypted. The relay will then have to function at the transport 
layer. I agree that high bandwidths will not be possible, but a large 
number of applications can be dreamt of that can benefit from this ad 
hoc communication.

Thanks!

Aaditeshwar.