A Hybrid Optimization Approach for Interference Alignment in Multi-User MIMO Relay Networks Under Different CSI

For the next generation of wireless communication network, a heterogeneous network architecture with macro cells, small cells, and relays offers numerous advantages, such as higher spectrum efficiency, better fairness in resource allocation, and energy efficient usage as well as optimal coverage. However, this approach encounters various network management challenges, including interference mitigation techniques. In this paper, we consider a multi-user half-duplex amplify-and-forward-MIMO relay system, where a macro basis station communicates with edge cell users via relays and each node has multiple antennas. In this context, we propose two interference alignment (IA) schemes, for which a hybrid approach of the problem formulation based on zero-forcing (ZF) and minimum-mean-square-error optimization criteria was developed to deal with interferences in perfect and imperfect channel state information (CSI) cases. In the case of perfect CSI, simulation results show that this approach provides a SNR gain of about 4 dB regarding BER performance in comparison to that achieved by the reference approach, where all filters are determined solely based on ZF criterion. Furthermore, the achieved capacity and effective signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio at each edge node are improved by around 5 dB. Having CSI errors, the system performance is significantly improved using the robust design IA approach by minimizing the expected value of cost functions.