Performance of 3GPP LTE-Advanced networks with Type I relay nodes

Relaying is expected to be one key element of the future cellular networks. This paper focuses on 3GPP LTE-Advanced network incorporated with Type I relay nodes. We first present the required radio resource management (RRM) framework which includes routing, resource partition and scheduling functions. Then two RRM strategies are suggested: one with the conventional cellular settings, the other with further consideration on the special interference environment with relay nodes (RN). We evaluate and compare the network performances through system-level simulations under different relay deployment patterns. The results show that the interference-aware scheme could boost the coverage range of the RN and provide better cell-edge throughput when the RN density is low. Moreover, when the RN number increased, a bottleneck effect caused by the limited backhaul link capacity is observed.