Wireless relays for broadband access [radio communications series]

This article presents the outlook of the overall broadband market and operators´ challenges in offering profitable mass market mobile data services. The concept of wireless relaying and its state of the art are then introduced, followed by a comprehensive description of a multihop relay system for WiMAX and related use cases. The article explains the impact of relays on network planning and presents an example of deployment cost analysis in different traffic scenarios and propagation conditions. Performance results show that multihop relaying is one of the most promising technologies that enables cost-effective enhancement of coverage, user throughput, and system capacity, and is especially suitable for the emerging markets and rural areas.