Cooperative Relay Network Configuration with Spatial Multiplexing and Beamforming

In this paper, we propose a novel cooperative relay network configuration with spatial multiplexing and beamforming. The proposed system configuration is based on two-hop amplify-forward relay protocol for its low complexity and easy implementation. In our work, we deduce the closed-form formulas of the system capacity, and under SNR maximizing and capacity maximizing criterions, we compare and analyze the system capacity and BER performances with that of common cooperative system. Our numerical and link level simulations show that applying the beamforming into the cooperative relay system can brings to common cooperative relay network performance gain, especially when the channel is independent.