Resource allocation and linear precoding for relay assisted multiuser MIMO systems

In this paper we investigate the use of infrastructure half-duplex amplify-and-forward (AF) relays in the downlink of a multi-user (MU) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system, which uses linear precoding based on block-diagonalization. Owing to the half-duplex mode of the relay, the communication is divided into two time-slots. During the first time-slot the relay nodes are treated as an additional mobile station (MS), while during the second time-slot the base-station (BS) and the relays form a distributed, virtual antenna array. In contrast to many relay applications, the purpose of the proposed scheme is not to increase diversity, but rather to increase the system throughput at the borders of a communication cell or in areas with a high user density. The performance of the proposed architecture is investigated by examining the sum-capacity of the system as well as the distribution of the capacity over the cell-area.