Performance of Relay-Enhanced Networks under Transmission Power Constraints

Abstract:
This paper investigates performance of cellular networks facing the need to limit power consumption, e.g. in case of multi-carrier operation. It is shown that simple reduction of the transmission power spectral density of macro base stations is not a good solution, as it significantly decreases the network’s performance. In the paper it is proposed to deploy relay nodes to compensate for the network’s coverage and capacity loss. Both two-hop and multi-hop relaying configurations are evaluated with several levels of macro station transmission power reduction. It is shown that even though the two-hop relaying configuration fully restores the network’s coverage and capacity it is not the most optimal solution. The multi-hop relaying, on the other hand, shows potential to significantly improve performance of networks facing power consumption restrictions. Keywords-LTE; relay; multi-hop; multi-carrier; power saving