New Achievable Sum Degrees of Freedom in Half-Duplex Single-Antenna Multi-User Multi-Hop Networks

We investigate the achievable sum degrees of freedom (DoF) in a class of single-antenna multi-user multi-hop relay networks. The networks consist of multiple information sources and destinations, without direct signal propagation link between them, so that multiple layers of relays are deployed to assist in information delivery. We consider the situation that relays are unable to shield their receptions from the harmful self-interference and from the interference generated by other relays. Hence, ideal full-duplex relaying is not applicable. Utilizing half-duplex decode-and-forward relays, a cluster successive relaying (CSR) transmission scheme is adopted to conduct message transmission. The CSR scheme divides each layer of relays into two successively activated relay clusters to compensate the extra channel consumption demanded by the half-duplex operation. We propose two interference alignment strategies to deal with the interference issues. By properly clustering the relays in each layer, we find the asymptotically achievable sum DoF, subject to time-varying and frequency-selective fading, respectively. These results can lead to new lower bounds for the available DoF in the considered class of multi-user multi-hop networks.