Power-Efficient Distributed Beamforming for Full-Duplex MIMO Relaying Networks

Multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) full-duplex relaying (FDR) has been considered an efficient technique to provide coverage to users where their direct links from the base station (BS) are too weak for reliable signal reception. However, when multiple MIMO full-duplex relays are deployed in a network, the signal reception quality relies on the effective suppression of multiple types of interference. In this paper, the distributed beamforming is studied for the MIMO FDR network by formulating a power minimization problem with a nonstrict convex objective function (total transmit power of both the BS and all the relays in the network) under individual user rate constraints. We come up with two iterative distributed beamforming algorithms, Algorithm 1 for relays equipped with single receive antenna and Algorithm 2 with multiple receive antennas. The former can yield a global optimal solution of the power minimization problem, whereas the latter can yield only a local optimal solution due to conservative successive convex approximations (SCAs) performed at each iteration, and a rigorous analysis on the upper bounds of step sizes is proposed to guarantee their convergence. The proposed two algorithms only require local information exchange between relays and hence are scalable for different network sizes and topologies. An “early termination” strategy in the operation of the proposed two algorithms is also presented to acquire an acceptable transmit power solution with less computation time consumption and thus suitable for realistic applications. Finally, some simulation results are provided to demonstrate that the proposed two algorithms perform well and significantly better than the existing state-of-the-art scheme reported in the work of Lee and Shin.