In parallel to HSPA evolution, 3GPP has adopted the Long Term Evolution track to fulfill the performance targets of 4G cellular networks. Multi-hop networks consisting of fixed decode and forward relays nodes are proposed to relax the capacity and coverage limitations encountered by traditional macro base station deployments. The relays are designed to operate on the in-band spectrum and support self-backhauling of user data. This thesis work provides an insight into the impact of uplink resource allocation in delivering improved user experience in relay enhanced cellular networks.
Radio resource allocation and power control play a crucial role in the performance of wireless communication systems. System level simulations reveal that reuse 1 based relay enhanced cells operate in an interference limited scenario. Therefore, a resource allocation scheme based on user grouping is investigated to coordinate and mitigate the negative effect of interference. It is shown that the proposed methodology is spectrally efficient and delivers improved system performance.
In addition to improving system performance, relaying is seen to be beneficial in significantly reducing battery consumption in devices. This is highly appealing since the next generation cellular networks are targeted towards higher bit rates and extended periods of mobile data usage. This work provides specific insights into the performance limiting criteria of the envisaged multi-hop system and, furthermore, is expected to contribute towards 3GPP's standardization of the relaying study item
