Relaying in CDMA networks: pathloss reduction and transmit power savings

Relaying has emerged as a field of growing interest for wireless systems. The use of intermediate nodes for relaying information from a source to its destination promises improvements on various levels, ranging from increased connectivity and reduced transmit powers to diversity gains. We examine various propagation models and network parameters and show to which extent the pathloss in cellular wireless systems can be reduced by the use of relay nodes in a two-hop scenario. Having highlighted these potentials, we discuss by means of numerical analysis and system-level simulation under which conditions these savings can be turned into a transmit power reduction for CDMA FDD systems. It becomes evident that the overall performance of the relay system depends on the node density and the relative load.