IMPROVING DATA THROUGHPUT FOR CELL-EDGE USERS IN A LTE NETWORK USING DOWN-LINK REPEATERS AND UP-LINK HARQ RELAYS

摘要

A combination of repeaters (1730) and relays (1750) is used to improve the data throughput for user equipment ("UE") (120) near the cell edge in a LTE network. Amplify-and-forward repeaters (1730) and decode-and-forward relays (1750) enhance the down-link and up-link, respectively. Relay assistance on the up-link occurs when the evolved Node B ("eNB") (110) requests a retransmission (HARQ) from the UE (120) at which point the UE (120) and relay (1750) transmit simultaneously in a cooperative fashion. The quality of the up-link signal received by the eNB (110) is improved due to a favorable channel through the relay (1750). An analysis shows that relay assistance improves the throughput for a cell-edge user when the average delay per data transport block is allowed to increase.