Relay Assisted MIMO Transmission System
Abstract higher spectral efficiency and link reliability. In this
Relay assisted Multiple Input Multiple Output
transmission system (MIMO) are expected to be a
part of future infrastructure based wireless
networks. Besides coverage extensions, such relays
can posses high transmission rates, higher speed
and larger capacity than its predecessors. MIMO
opens a new dimension for wireless broadband
communication, mobile wireless access. In this
paper we present the concept of a relay-assisted
MIMO transmission system for wireless
communication, via conceptual study of relay-
assisted MIMO transmission system.
1. Introduction
It is believed that next generation wireless network
will adopt MIMO technology to have higher speed and
larger capacity than its predecessors [1]. MIMO opens a
new dimension for an effective communication. They
can offer multiplexing gains and diversity gain
(robustness of communication under undesirable channel
effects) and are receiving much attention nowadays
thanks to their properties for increasing the
performance of wireless communication.
It is expected that future wireless broadband
communication systems will operate beyond 5GHz,
which relays on the use of multiple antennas at
transmitter/receiver side. It is a very promising technique
to mitigate the channel fading and thus improving the
cellular system capacity. However, it is capable of
accomplishing what is undertaken it has to face some
problems, hence relay assisted MIMO was proposed.
Relay transmission has been identified as one of the
core technologies that could enable robust high speed
information transfer over challenging wireless
environment [2]. By positioning the relays in between
source and destination, it is possible to benefit the
transmission in terms of higher transmission rate and
wider coverage, due to such benefits, much research has
been devoted in analyzing the relay channel and
realizing its potential. MIMO system enhances the
system’s performance by increasing the number of relays
between them. By replacing the multiple transmitters
with relay nodes, the system is able to achieve the more
homogeneous power distribution by reducing
deployment and operational expenditures. Thus the goal
of relay assisted MIMO system is to increase the rank of
compound channel matrix, high throughput and link
range without additional bandwidth. It achieves this by
paper we present, a conceptual study of relay-assisted
MIMO system in detail.
2. MIMO
MIMO is an antenna array technology for
wireless communication in which multiple antennas are
used at both source and destinations . Antenna array
technology is the use of multiple antennas at the
transmitter or the receiver. Antennas at each end of the
communications circuit are combined to minimize errors
and optimize data speed. MIMO is one of several forms
of smart antenna technology. By configuring multiple
antennas at both the transmitting and receiving side, the
channel capacity may be improved proportionally to the
minimum number of antennas at the transmitter and the
receiver.
In conventional wireless communications, a single
antenna is used at the source, and another single antenna
is used at the destination. In some cases, this gives rise to
problems with multipath effects. When an
electromagnetic field is met with obstructions such as
hills, canyons, buildings, and utility wires, the wave
fronts are scattered, and thus they take many paths to
reach the destination. The late arrival of scattered
portions of the signal causes problems such as fading,
cut-out and intermittent reception. In digital
communications systems such as wireless Internet, it can
cause a reduction in data speed and an increase in
number of errors. The use of two or more antennas,
along with the transmission of multiple signals (one for
each antenna) at the source and the destination,
eliminates the trouble caused by multipath wave
propagation, and can even take advantage of this effect.
MIMO technology has attracted in wireless
communication, since it offers significant increase in
data throughput and link range without additional
bandwidth or transmit power. It achieves it by higher
spectral efficiency and link reliability or diversity.
Because of these characteristic, MIMO is a current
theme of international wireless research.
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 Fig.1 Basic MIMO

2.1. Basic Concepts of MIMO Wireless

Scheme
Antenna Array Technology: MIMO is an antenna
array technology that is the use of multiple antennas at Fig.4 SIMO
the transmitter or the receiver.
Multiple Input and Single Output (MISO) is a
Spatial Multiplexing: Spatial multiplexing is a
degenerate case when the transmitter has multiple
transmission technique in MIMO wireless
antennas.
communication to transmit independent and separately
encoded data signals, so called streams, from each of the
multiple transmit antennas.

Fig.5 MISO

2.2. Forms of MIMO 2.3. Cooperative MIMO

SISO/SIMO/MISO are degenerate cases of Cooperative MIMO (CO-MIMO), also known as
MIMO [3]. Network MIMO, utilizes distributed antennas which
belong to other users [3]. CO-MIMO improves the
performance of a wireless network by introducing
multiple antenna advantages, such as diversity,
multiplexing and beam forming. If the main interest
hinges on the diversity gain, it is known as cooperative
diversity. Cooperative MIMO is, Multiple Transmitters
with Multiple Antennas each transmits different
encoded streams to a Single Receiver with Multiple
Antennas. In conventional MIMO, transmitting stations
perform MIMO transmission with out consideration of
Fig.2 Evolution of MIMO the other transmitting stations. Therefore if all
transmitting stations have the same number of transmit
Single Input and Single Output (SISO) is a antennas then all transmitting stations will transmit
radio system where neither the transmitter nor receiver identical signals. One notable advantage of CO-MIMO is
have multiple antennas. that spatial multiplexing gain can be achieved even if the
transmitting stations do not have multiple transmit
antennas as long as receiving station as multiple
antennas. The relay station will generate the same
encoded result but will transmit different portions of it,
operating as if they were different antenna elements of a
common transmitter. CO-MIMO is a technique useful for
future cellular networks which consider wireless mesh
Fig.3 SISO networking.

Single Input and Multiple Output (SIMO) is a

degenerate case when the transmitter has a single 3. Why Relay Assisted MIMO ?
antenna.
Communication becomes ineffective on the MIMO
system when the distance between source and destination

2
large. It is better to provide a short distance, which
makes communication much better. In MIMO
transmission system, relays are added in between the
source and destination, which provide a short distance
communication to the destination from the source. This
makes communication muchost effective. That is why
relays are assisted on a MIMO system for better and Fig.7 Relay Assisted MIMO
effective communication.
4.1. Relays

Relays are the nodes or channels that interconnects

Fig.6 Relay Assisted MIMO
Relay channels will play a central role in next-
generation wireless systems. If a source wants to send a
message to a distant sink in a relatively dense network, it
can forward the message via several intermediate nodes.
This would improve the overall rate of successful
message delivery over a communication channel and
coverage. In this setup, we can exploit the multiple
antennas at the source and the relay to perform, which
will lead to improve performance.
The relay assisted transmission system is able to
combat, the channel impairments caused due to the
shadowing and path-loss provided in source destination
and relay destination links cause they are statistically
independent, where there is no obstacle.
4. Relay Assisted MIMO
the source (transmitter) and destination (receiver), which
they can receive and transmit information from the
source to destination. Relay transmission has been
identified as one of the core technologies that could
enable high speed information transfer over challenging
wireless environment[4]. By placing relays between
MIMO, it is possible to improve throughput and
coverage, than the system which uses MIMO alone.
Relays has made a major parts in mobile communication
and wireless broadband access. Each assisting relay does
a phase rotation of the received signal, so that, the
channel between the relays and the relays and the
destination is transformed into time variant channel.
4.2. Infrastructure Relay Assisted MIMO
It is the design format by which the relays are
arranged in a pattern, such that it makes communication
more effective when placed between a MIMO.
In relay transmission is carried out in two orthogonal
phases, one the relay receive phase and relay transmit
phase, according to the state of the assisting relay[2].
Multiplexing gains are possible in relays having multiple
antenna terminals, although significant additive capacity
gains are still possible. This system contains a multiple
input transmitter (source station), relay station and
multiple output receivers (destination station).

The relay assisted MIMO system uses same number

of multiple antennas at the transmitter (source) and at the
receiver (destination). In between source and destination
relays are used, which make the transmission better. On
using MIMO alone there exist a single time slot, which
will be large and there will be a propagation delay.
When relays are introduced on such cases there will be
two time slots, they are time before receiving and the
time after forwarding. Thus the relays in between
transmitter antenna and receiver antenna will make the
transmission better.

Fig.8 Infrastructure Relay assisted MIMO

3
 The relay assisted transmission definition entails a
cross-layer architecture. At the physical layer, algorithm
for encoding and signal processing are required at the
source and relay. Additionally, decoding algorithms are
also needed at the relay and destination. Therefore a new
paradigm in communication appears, source- relay-
destination. The decoding terminal of the relay terminal
should be defined,[2].

Amplify and Forward (AF): The relay amplifies and

forwards the signal received during the relay-receive
phase.
Decode and Forward (DF): The relay decodes the
message received in the relay-receive phase, re-encodes
and transmits in the relay-transmit phase.
Compress and Forward (CF): The relay compress
the estimated symbols of signal received during the
relay-receive phase and transmits in the relay-transmit
phase.
Fig.10 Parallel Relay Transmission
Hybrid Relay Transmission: Hybrid relay
transmission is the combination of both serial and
parallel relay transmission. In which there exists
multiple receiving stations and multiple serial relays,
which increases the transmission more effective.

The relay-assisted transmission is able to provide an

additive capacity gain compared with the direct
transmission. The relay assisted MIMO transmission can
be carried with different topologies.

4.3. Topologies of Relay Transmission

We study three different relay transmission
topologies, (i) Serial, (ii) Parallel, (iii) Hybrid [4].

Serial Relay Transmission: A serial relay

transmission employ multiple relays, where the relays
are arranged in series or linear. When multiple relays are
used transmission power is increased which is Fig.11 Hybrid Relay Transmission
advantageous in increasing the transmission rate.

4.4. Application of Relay assisted MIMO

Fig.9 Serial Relay Transmission
Parallel Relay Transmission: In parallel relay
transmission the relays are kept parallel and the
transmission take two time slots. Unlike serial relays,
parallel relays have multiple receiving stations, which
increases the transmission rate.
As the characteristics of the relay transmission
for wireless communication has attracted the world
towards it. Mobile communication is made effective
through relay assisted MIMO system. It provides high
throughput for wireless mobile access than that in
multiple times of a system without relays. Even on high
mobility, relay assisted MIMO possess high throughput.
Relay-assisted MIMO technique will be used in wireless
mobile access. As it removes multipath fading, it is
highly preferable in places where multiple reflections of
signal occurs. Hence it has attracted attention in wireless
communication, it plays a major role in future. Relay-
assisted MIMO planned to be used in mobile radio
telephone standards such as in recent 3GPP (3rd

4
Generation Partnership Project) and 3GPP2 (3rd
Generation Partnership Project), High Speed Packet
Access Plus (HSPA+) and Long Term Evolution (LTE)
standards take relay-assisted MIMO into account.

5. Conclusion
This paper have discussed the basic concepts,
evolution, applications of MIMO and relay-assisted
MIMO communication system, also we presented the
properties of the infrastructure relay system, with
different topologies and transmission scheme
considering cooperative MIMO. Relay assisted MIMO
transmission system plays a important role in near future
wireless communication. It has been studied that these
system possess high throughput, reduces multi path
fading and suitable for long range transmission. Relay-
assisted MIMO transmission strategy will contribute a
lot in future.

6. References

[1] N.A.C. Cressie, “Statistics for Spatial Data”, New

York: John Wiley & Sons, 1993.

[2] Adrain Agustin, “Relay Assisted Transmission and

Radio Resource Management for Wireless Networks”,
Catalonia.

[3] www.wikipedia.com, “Multiple Input and Multiple

Output”, ”Cooperative MIMO”.

[4] Younsun kim, Hui Liu , “Infrastructure Relay

Transmission With Cooperative MIMO”,2006.