Dynamic Multi-Hop HARQ Scheme to Maximize E2E Reliability in the Finite Blocklength Regime

The extreme requirements for high reliability and low latency in Beyond-Fifth-Generation (B5G) and Sixth Generation (6G) mobile systems are challenging the design of multihop relay networks. In this paper we investigate the problem of multi-hop decode-and-forward (DF) relaying in the finite blocklength (FBL) regime, and propose a dynamic multi-hop hybrid automated repeat request (DMH-HARQ) scheme, which maximizes the end-to-end (E2E) communication reliability in such systems. We also propose an integer dynamic programming (DP) algorithm to efficiently solve the optimal DMH-HARQ schedule. Constrained within a certain time frame to accomplish multi-hop relaying, our proposed approach is proven to outperform any static HARQ strategy regarding the E2E reliability.