Decode-and-Forward Cooperative Transmission with a Multi-Antenna Relay in Multiuser Networks

Abstract

In this paper, we consider a two-hop relay network with a decode-and-forward (DF) relaying protocol where a multi-input/multi-output (MIMO) relay station (RS) is deployed in a cell edge to extend cell coverage of a base station (BS). We propose two MIMO relaying schemes to improve the quality of the BS-RS link, which is a key to improve data rates in the DF relaying: 1) spatial multiplexed MIMO antenna relaying (SM-MAR) with a uniform channel decomposition (UCD) precoder, and 2) MIMO relaying with section diversity (SD-MAR). In the SM-MAR, we greatly simplify user allocation by the UCD precoder and propose a sophisticated rate maximization technique to resolve the non-convexity of rate maximization problems. Through simulations, we show that the proposed UCD based power allocation exhibits up to two times higher achievable throughput than other techniques. In addition, the proposed SD-MAR supports the BS with a single transmit antenna and increases the signal quality of the BS-RS link with the selection diversity at the RS, which is much simpler to be implemented. For the SD-MAR, we derive a closed form expression for the achievable throughput and show that the selection diversity plays more important role on the achievable throughput than the multiuser diversity.