Performance Evaluation of a proposed Two-Hop D&F Co-operative 5G Network using SDR Platform

This work presents a Decode-&-Forward (D&F) protocol hardware implementation for downlink Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) for Co-operative 5G network. Using a Software Defined Radio (SDR) platform, the Two-Hop D&F Co-operative 5G network has been implemented. The proposed co-operative system is composed of one emulated gNodeB, the proposed D&F relay node, and an emulated User Equipment (UE). The performance and feasibility of the development of the D&F relay node implemented using Matlab software has been measured on a test-bench in a real outdoor-to-indoor scenario. One of the main new features in this development is that the downlink 5G signal fulfils the New Radio (NR) 3GPP standard and was validated employing MS2090A-Anritsu LTE/5G spectrum analyzer. The obtained results support that the D&F protocol of the Co-operative 5G Network clearly improves the Bit Error Rate (BER) and Throughput in the 5G wireless communication between gNodeB and UE nodes. It has been demonstrated the viability and flexibility of the D&F Co-operative 5G Network based on SDR platform and Matlab software.