System Performance of an LTE-A Cellular Network with Shared Relays under Different Resource Demands

In this paper, we focus on a shared relay architecture in the cellular network instead of deploying multiple separated relays near cell edges. The advantage of shared relaying is the joint processing of signals at the relay to suppress the inter-cell interference (ICI). The performance of a relay enhanced cellular system depends significantly on the resource allocation scheme, especially when taking into account the resource competition from different links. Therefore, in this work, an efficient and effective resource allocation and scheduling scheme based on the subframe structure is proposed to maximize the benefit of the shared relay. System level simulations quantify the system performance in different resource demand situations, and show that the deployment of shared relays can improve significantly the overall system performance and also increase the throughput of cell edge users as compared to the conventional separated cell edge relay station deployment.