Optimal Relay Location in OFDMA Based Cooperative Networks

In this paper, we consider an OFDMA-based two-hop relay network which consists of a single base station, dedicated fixed relay stations and subscriber stations. We investigate the optimal location of the relay stations aiming to maximize system throughput. We also focus on the impact of different relay strategies (i.e., decode-and-forward vs. amplify-and-forward) for each source-destination pair on the network performance. For a wireless network operating in a multiuser frequency-selective slow-fading environment, it is an important task for the network operator to decide where to place the relay stations and how to relay. Through a system lever simulation, we obtain the network performance of our proposed approach in an OFDMA based cooperative environment for different relay locations and different relay strategies. In the end, we give the optimal location of RS and present the impact of RS number on the system capacity under our assumptions. Our approach will be heuristic in practice for the deployment of relay stations in the networks.