Performance evaluation of vehicular LTE mobile relay nodes

European Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI) is standardizing the 3GPP Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-A) relay nodes (RNs) which are intended to be used for providing enhanced cell edge coverage and capacity. We present simulation results on the prospected LTE-A mobile relay node (MRN) applications. The future vehicles can communicate with their environment by exchanging information with surrounding sensor networks and objects. This is related to the concept of Internet of Things (IoT), in which even the smallest objects are equipped with sensors and connectivity capabilities, in order to report information on, e.g., temperature and air pressure. We consider a scenario where in-car connectivity is provided by a short range wireless link such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, which can be utilized by the passengers, various sensors, or the vehicle itself. We study the achievable system performance improvement when MRNs are utilized in comparison with the case, in which the users are independently connected to the LTE network. Through simulations, we show that the wireless links via MRNs can give significant advantage when compared to the direct connections from personal handsets to LTE base stations (eNBs).