Repeater for 5G wireless: A complementary contender for Spectrum Sensing intelligence

Exploring innovative cellular architectures to achieve enhanced system capacity and good coverage has become a critical issue towards realizing the fifth generation (5G) of wireless communications. In this context, this paper proposes a novel concept of an intelligent Amplify and Forward (AF) 5G repeater for enabling the densification of future cellular networks. The proposed repeater features a Spectrum Sensing (SS) intelligence capability and utilizes such intelligence in a complementary fashion in comparison to its existing counterpart (e.g., Cognitive Radio) by detecting the active channels within the assigned spectrum. This intelligence allows the proposed repeater to carry out selective amplification of the active channels in contrast to the full amplification in conventional AF repeaters. Furthermore, the performance of a Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) based two hop cellular network utilizing the proposed repeater is evaluated in terms of the system throughput. Simulation results demonstrate up to 13 % increase when compared with the conventional repeaters. Moreover, the effect of SS errors on the system capacity is analyzed.