Two-hop interference channels: Impact of linear time-varying schemes

We consider the two-hop interference channel (IC) with constant real channel coefficients, which consists of two source-destination pairs, separated by two relays. We analyze the achievable degrees of freedom (DoF) of such network when relays are restricted to perform scalar amplify-forward (AF) operations, with possibly time-varying coefficients. We show that, somewhat surprisingly, by providing the flexibility of choosing time-varying AF coefficients at the relays, it is possible to achieve 4/3 sum-DoF. We also develop a novel outer bound that matches our achievability, hence characterizing the sum-DoF of two-hop interference channels with time-varying AF relaying strategies.