Advanced Antenna Configurations for the Downlink of Multihop Based Cellular Networks

Relaying is expected to play an important role in the design of next generation cellular networks. Integrating multihop communications with the infrastructure-based design of cellular networks results in a new wireless architecture known as multihop based cellular network (MBCN). Studies performed so far on MBCNs mainly assume the use of omnidirectional antennas at relay stations. In this work, we investigate the use of advanced antenna configurations at fixed relay stations in CDMA-based MBCNs. The considered advanced antenna configurations include directional antennas and various adaptive antenna arrays. A new interference reduction factor is derived and studied in terms of overall system performance. Analytical results accompanied by Monte-Carlo simulation results demonstrate that with proper selection of advanced antennas at fixed relay stations, significant performance gains can be achieved.