In essence, the proposed multihop message forwarding mechanism can be deemed as a generalization of the relay strategies for cellular networks that have been previously considered in the literature. In previous proposals, fixed relay nodes are being deployed within the cell and message forwarding takes place as soon as the relay receives the information (using for example Amplify and Forward (AF) or Decode and Forward (DF) relaying). Instead, here we assume that mobile relay nodes which can postpone the forwarding of received messages in order to reach favorable transmit positions. In this way, the store-carry and forward (SCF) relaying paradigm can be realized within the cell. **Figure 1.** A single realization of the store-carry and forward paradigm employed by a mobile relay node within the cell. Consider an illustrative example of the above concepts in Figure 1. In this figure a single base stations (BS) entity and a single mobile node at four consecutive snapshots in time are shown. For delay sensitive applications, the direct link path is followed (link 1 in Figure 1). However when the initiated service can tolerate some delay, alternative paths become feasible and can be therefore utilized; either through links \(2\to 3\) with the mobile node postponing transmission for a single time interval, through links \(2\to 4\to 5\) with delay of two time periods or via route \(2\to 4\to 6\to 7\) with delay of three time periods. Clearly, increasing delay tolerance on message delivery deadlines allows for localized transmissions to be realized while the physical propagation of information messages can be achieved through the cell. The contributions of this paper can be summarized as follows:  
1. The store-carry and forwarding paradigm for cellular networks is introduced. While SCF relaying has been studied extensively in the past, the scenario we consider in this work differs dramatically. In all previous occasions, SCF relaying has been considered as the only alternative method for providing communication in intermittently connected networks. In that case because of the absence of an end-to-end path, information was stored for unexpected periods of time before a new contact opportunity arouse. In the case we consider here, end-to-end connectivity is not an issue. On the contrary, due to the presence of the infrastructure nodes there is almost full connectivity within the cell coverage area. However, delay is deliberately expended by mobile nodes while physically propagating information to reach a favorable transmit position. In this way, informed routing decisions are made to satisfy different operating requirements. 2. The benefits of the proposed mode of operation are described and novel network optimization strategies are explained. 3. A theoretical model is detailed for studying the proposed forwarding scheme and a network flow formulation is introduced that is computationally efficient and it can be used in practice to derive optimal forwarding policies. In the following sections we show how the proposed SCF relaying scheme can be an effective mechanism for message forwarding in cellular networks. Section 2 provides a detailed literature review on the related work. In Section 3 we study a number of potential use cases where SCF relaying can improve system performance, while in Section 4 we formally state the problem and provide a network flow formulation for solving the joint routing and scheduling problem that suffices. Furthermore, Section 5 presents a detailed numerical investigation and in Section 6 considerations are made on the issues that need to be addressed through the protocol stack when delays on the end-to-end paths need to be considered. Finally we conclude the paper in Section 7, where also some future avenues of research are outlined.