In a sector of a single cell, due to the fading characteristic of wireless channels, several decode-and-forward relay stations are deployed to form a two-hop relay-assisted multicast system. We propose two schemes for the system, the first scheme combines the use of space-time code and distributed space-time code (DSTC), and the second one combines the use of DSTC and maximum ratio combining. We give an outage probability analysis for both of them. Based on this analysis, we manage to maximize the spectral efficiency under a preset outage probability confinement by finding out the optimal power allocation and relay location strategies. We use genetic algorithms to verify our analysis and numerical results show that the schemes proposed by us significantly outperform the scheme in previous work. We also show the effect of path loss exponent on the optimal strategy.

Setting relays can address the shadowing problem between a transmitter (Tx) and a receiver (Rx). Moreover, the Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) technique has been introduced to improve wireless link capacity. The MIMO technique can be applied in relay network to enhance system performance. However, the efficiency of relaying schemes and relay placement have not been well investigated with experiment-based study. This paper provides a propagation measurement campaign of a MIMO two-hop relay network in 5 GHz band in an L-shaped corridor environment with various relay locations. Furthermore, this paper proposes a Relay Placement Estimation (RPE) scheme to identify the optimum relay location, i.e. the point at which the network performance is highest. Analysis results of channel capacity show that relaying technique is beneficial over direct transmission in strong shadowing environment while it is ineffective in non-shadowing environment. In addition, the optimum relay location estimated with the RPE scheme also agrees with the location where the network achieves the highest performance as identified by network capacity. Finally, the capacity analysis shows that two-way MIMO relay employing network coding has the best performance while cooperative relaying scheme is not effective due to shadowing effect weakening the signal strength of the direct link.

In this paper, we propose a novel scheme of cooperative relaying network based on data exchange between relays before forwarding their received data to destination. This inter-relay data exchange step is done during an additional middle-slot in order to enhance the transmit signals from relays to the destination under low transmit power condition. To reduce the propagation errors between relays as well as the required transmit power during this data exchange, only the relay possessing the highest SNR is engaged into exchanging data by forwarding its received signal to the other relays. As for the remaining non-selected relays, i.e. with low SNR, the transmitted signal is estimated by using both signals received separately at different time slots (i.e., 1st and 2nd slot) from source and the 'best' selected relay, respectively, emulating virtual antenna array where appropriate weights for the antenna array are developed. In addition, we investigate distributed transmit beamforming and maximum ratio combining at the relays and the destination, respectively, to combine coherently the received signals. At the relay optimal location and for low SNR condition, the proposed method has significant better outage behavior and average throughput than conventional methods using one or two time slots for transmission.