Digital Communications and Networks 5 (2019) 121–130
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Digital Communications and Networks
Impact of antenna and beam-selection-based sectored relay planning for
performance evaluation of 4G LTE-A tri-sectored cell
Javaid A. Sheikh *, Mehboob-ul- Amin **, Shabir A. Parah, G. Mohiuddin Bhat
Post Graduate Department of Electronics and I.T., University of Kashmir, Srinagar, India
A R T I C L E I N F O
Keywords:
Long Term Evolution-Advanced (LTE-A)
Relay Node (RN)
Sectored Relaying (SR)
Antenna Selection Sectored Relaying (ASSR)
Beam Selection Sectored Relaying (BSSR)
Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT)
1. Introduction
The Long Term Evolution launched in the market by Third Generation
Partnership Projects (3GPP) involves Orthogonal Frequency Division
Multiple Access as a basic multiple access technique [1]. The incorpo-
ration of multiple input multiple output antennas further increases the
data rate, but cannot completely mitigate the effect of interference, and
cannot fulfill the standards laid down by International Telecommunica-
tion Advanced (IMT-Advanced) for a broader coverage area and larger
capacity [2]. The major challenges facing the 4G LTE-A networking
community are the provision of high spectral efficiency, throughput, and
Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR). Cell edge users often
suffer from the worst SINR and connectivity, due to power limiting ca-
pacity of base stations [3]. The incorporation of Relay Nodes (RNs) in the
conventional cellular architecture has proved to be a promising
* Corresponding author.
** Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: sjavaid_29ku@yahoo.co.in (J.A. Sheikh), mehboo1197@gmail.com (M.-u. Amin).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcan.2017.08.006
Received 2 November 2016; Received in revised form 20 June 2017; Accepted 18 August 2017
Available online 5 September 2017
2352-8648/© 2018 Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi. This is an open access article
under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
journal homepage: www.keaipublishing.com/dcan
A B S T R A C T
The deployment of Relay Nodes (RNs) in 4G LTE-A networks, mainly originating from the wireless backhaul link,
provides an excellent network planning tool to enhance system performance. Better coordination between the
base station and relays to mitigate inter-cell interference becomes an important aspect of achieving the required
system performance, not only in the single-cell scenario, but also in multi-cell scenarios. In this paper, we model
and analyze two basic approaches for designing a 4G LTE-A tri-sectored cellular system. The approaches are based
on Antenna Selection Sectored Relaying (ASSR) and Beam Selection Sectored Relaying (BSSR). The main purpose
of the proposed schemes is to enhance system performance by improving the quality of the wireless relay
backhaul link. In this technique, antenna selection takes into consideration Non-Line-Of-Sight (NLOS) commu-
nication, whereas BSSR considers the case of Line-Of-Sight (LOS) communication using heuristic beam forming
approach. The resource allocation problem has also been investigated for relay based cooperative LTE-A tri-
sectored cell in the downlink. The best possible location for relay node in the sector, power allocation and MIMO
channel modeling is formulated as an optimization problem with the aim of maximizing the end to end link rate
and the Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR) of 4G LTE-A systems. Power allocation/optimization has
been solved by means of the duality equation of the stationary Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) condition and is used to
derive optimal values for the beam forming vector on both the relay as well as the access link. The performance of
the proposed scheme is verified through simulations carried out using MATLAB software. The simulation results
show a significant improvement in the SINR, throughput capacity, and coverage area of the 4G LTE-A cell, while
guaranteeing better quality of service.
technology for 4G LTE-A systems [4]. Sectored Relaying (SR) is a very
advantageous solution to the problem of poor coverage and connectivity.
In SR, relays are deployed in each sector of a cell, so that users residing
near cell edges receive the signal directly from relays, thus decreasing the
path losses. The signal strength therefore increases, and the cell coverage
gets extended. Relaying technology is based on allocating the spectrum
resources in such a way that optimum performance is achieved, in terms
of the SINR and both network coverage and capacity [5]. Due to the
introduction of RNs in LTE-A, networks interference needs to be properly
modeled, and so the main focus of our research work aims at improving
interference coordination between all the RNs of the cell and User
Equipment (UE). Moreover, to fully exploit the benefits of relay tech-
nology in 4G networks, relay deployment in different cell sectors and
power allocation are crucial, especially in the cooperative environment.
The concept of power allocation in the cooperative environment is
J.A. Sheikh et al.
defined as allocating the transmitted power among users and spatial di-
rections, while satisfying a set of power constraints. Thus, power allo-
cation involves the selection of a signal correlation matrix for each user,
enabling computation of the SINR of each user [6].
In the literature, various techniques have been elaborated to improve
the performance of 4G LTE-A networks. Single relay selection, proposed
in Ref. [7], employs only one ‘best relay’ for transmission. However, Ref.
[8] proves that single relay selection achieves a lower outage probability
under aggregate power constraints. The best relay selection and resource
allocation with single-user and multiple relays have been well investi-
gated in Refs. [9,10]. The idea is therefore limited to a single-user sce-
nario; in the presence of multiple users, relay selection and resource
allocation become complicated due to multi-user interactions. The al-
gorithm presented in Ref. [11] finds a near optimal relay assignment and
power allocation where each user is supported by a single relay. How-
ever, this scheme cannot achieve an optimal solution because the relay
selection criterion is only based on maximum allocated power and not on
the SINR. The novel fixed algorithm presented in Ref. [12] attempted to
solve the RN placement problem. The algorithm confines the RNs to a
circle around the serving base station. A model to solve the relay selec-
tion problem for LTE-A networks for both optimal and suboptimal
schemes for resource allocation in order to maximize the throughput was
developed in Ref. [13]. The paper does not give us any idea about the
interference between various nodes in the network. The impact of relay
site planning on the performance of relay deployments was given in
Ref. [14]. Two approaches based on cell selection and location selections
were investigated to improve the quality of the wireless relay backhaul
link. The only limitation is that antenna gains are not modeled; instead,
isotropic antennas are considered in all transmitters. The optimal relay
placement in cellular networks was proposed in Ref. [15]. The results
show improvement in the out-of-band cellular capacity; however, the
in-band capacity degrades. To compensate for the poor in band capacity,
RNs need to be deployed in different sectors of the cell. Maximizing the
network capacity while maintaining the minimum installation cost has
been addressed in Ref. [16], but the mathematical analysis for interfer-
ence coordination that is necessary for system deployment has not been
carried out. A model based on the effect of path loss on SINR is proposed
in Ref. [17]; however, the SINR varied linearly with a single RN node.
The intra-cell COordinated Multi Point (COMP) transmission to improve
the SINR of user equipment in the relay scenario has been reported in
Ref. [18]. Various system-level simulations to obtain the results in terms
of the wideband average SINR and UE throughput were carried out in
Ref. [19].
In this paper, we propose a novel method based on the concept of SR
to build a simple model for analyzing the impact of antenna selection and
beam selection on the performance of 4G LTE-A networks and present an
analytical framework that explains the heuristic beam forming approach
for deriving the gain on the backhaul relay and access links for the end-
to-end link rate. Closed-form expressions for SINR for the backhaul relay
link for both NLOS and LOS communication have been deduced. We also
establish equations for optimizing the throughput capacity of both the
backhaul relay link and the access link by solving the Lagrangian dual
problem. The impact of cell edge deployment of RNs and cell central
deployment of RNs to reflect the network coverage performance and user
performance has also been demonstrated. The simulation results confirm
that the proposed schemes significantly improve the system performance
in terms of broader coverage, capacity, and better interference
management.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows: Section 2 introduces the
system model. The analytical framework for the optimal solution is
presented in Section 3. Algorithms are briefly described in Section 4. The
results are shown in Section 5, followed by concluding remarks in Section
6.
122
Digital Communications and Networks 5 (2019) 121–130
2. System model
We consider downlink communication of a 4G LTE-A tri-sectored cell
deployed with eNodeB (eNB) and RNs. We assume that there are k ¼ 1, 2,
3 potential positions for RN deployments in the cell. Users are assumed to
be uniformly distributed in the cell. The communication link between
eNB and UE is denoted as a direct link and the link between RN and UE as
an access link. The backhaul relay link exists between eNB and RN. The
geographical area of the cell is divided into three different sectors, and
RN is deployed in each sector (SR) at predefined positions of k. The
statistics of the channel propagation is considered to be static in each
sector. Users residing at cell borders receive poor SINR from eNB. The
users experience poor or no connectivity. In order to tackle the poor
connectivity, cell edge deployment of RNs is considered. For optimal
resource allocation, the wireless backhaul is chosen in such a way that it
supports joint transmission to all users. Resource Blocks (RBs) are allo-
cated in half-duplex time division duplexing mode; i.e., during an in-
terval of T sub-frames, T1 sub-frames are allocated to the wireless
backhaul link for eNB-RN communication, and T-T1 ¼ T2 sub-frames are
allocated to direct and access links for RN-UE communication. For
channel modeling, we first focus on the multi-user MIMO interference
channel, where eNB transmits a single data vector to all M users. Suppose
eNB is equipped with Nt  2 transmitting antennas, while m-th
user,UEm ðm 2 CM Þ , is equipped with Nr  2 receive antennas.
The received signal at UEm is modeled as follows:
X
Nt X
Nr X
M
ym ¼ ΩH m Htr Sm Dm Cm þ N0 (1)
i¼1 i¼1 i¼1
where Sm 2 C is the data vector with EfjSm j2 g ¼ 1 transmitted by eNB.
The channel matrix between eNB and UE is denoted by
Htr 2 CNt Nr ,ΩН m 2 CNr is the receiving combining vector employed at
UEm ⋅Dm 2 CNt Nr and Cm 2 CNt Nr are the diagonal channel matrices that
carry data and nonnegligible interference, and N0 is the additive white
Gaussian noise. In a nonrelay scenario (eNB only), the performance of the
UEm in terms of the SINR can be modeled as
gm ðΩm Þ ¼ gm ðSINRm ðΩm ÞÞ (2)
for a strictly monotonically increasing user performance function
gm ð:Þ.The SINR of UEm is given by
P t PNr PM
Pb ΩH m Ni¼1 jHtr Dm Cm j2
SINRm ðΩm Þ ¼ Pmi;Nti ;Nri i¼1 i¼1
2
(3)
jh j P þ N0
i ¼ 1 ti ri b
m 6¼ mi
Pmi;Nti ;Nri
where Pb is the power at eNB, and the term jhti ri j2 is the inter-
i¼1
m6¼mi
ference due to other users. For interference management on backhaul
relay link, RNs are deployed in the network. RNs are also equipped with
multiple antennas and thus can also serve other cells, resulting in inter-
cell interference. To avoid this, we limit the coverage of eNB to only cell
central users, and users at cell edges are best served by RNs. The location
for an RN in the cell, out of the k possible locations is selected on the basis
of the SINR. The SINR of the selected location should be of the form
gm ðSINRk;m Þ ¼ gm ðmaxðSINRk;m : k ¼ 1; 2; 3ÞÞ (4)
where SINRk;m is the SINR of the mth user for the kth location of the
backhaul relay link. In the case of NLOS, all transmitters are equipped
with isotropic antennas and for LOS, the beam forming vector ðvm Þ is
considered, so that antenna gains are modeled precisely. The resultant
SINR for NLOS communication on the backhaul relay link will therefore
be given by
J.A. Sheikh et al. Digital Communications and Networks 5 (2019) 121–130

PNt PNr PM 2 PNt PNj PM Pk  0


0 2 3. Analytical framework for the optimal solution
i¼1 Ωm jHtr j Pb þ
H
i¼1 Htj D m C m Prk
SINRk;m ¼ i¼1 i¼1
2 i¼1 i¼1 i¼1

Pmi 6 002 In this section, the goal is to establish the equation for optimizing the
h j Pb þ jht0 r0 j2 Pr þ N0
i ¼ 1 4j t r capacity of both the backhaul relay link and the access link by solving the
m 6¼ mi Lagrangian problem. T1 sub-frames are assigned to the backhaul relay
(5) link and TT1 ¼ T2 sub-frames are assigned to the access link. The power
allocation coefficient for the mth user for the kth positioned relay on the
where Htj 2 CNt Nj denotes the channel between the t transmitting an- th
backhaul relay and the access links are designated as pm;tj;kðvm;tj ÞRL
tenna of eNB and the jth receive antenna of the kth positioned relay
and pm;jr;kðvm;jr ÞAL , respectively. We define fχ ¼ pm;tj;kðvm;tj ÞRL ; pm;jr;kðvm;jr ÞAL ;
(antenna selection). D0 m 2 CNt Nj and C0 m 2 CNt Nj are the diagonal
matrices on the backhaul relay link carrying the data and nonnegligible T1 ; T2 g as a variable set, and Pb and Prk as the power of the eNB and the
interference, respectively, from eNB to the kth positioned relay, and Prk is kth positioned relay, respectively. The channel capacity for the kth posi-
P  2 tioned relay over the backhaul relay link can be written as follows:
the power at the kth relay. The term k Htj D0 m C0 m  Prk is the signal i¼1
  
power due to SR. In the case of LOS communication, we introduce the Nt X
T1 X
Nj Xk X M Hm;tj D0 m;tj C 0 m;tj vm;tj  2 
heuristic beam forming approach where the beam forming vector vm is CRL;kðvm Þ ¼ B1 log2 1 þ (12)
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi T i¼1 i¼1 i¼1 i¼1 Nmi
decomposed as vm ¼ Pm vm , for all m users, where vm are the normalized
beam forming directions and Pm  0 are the corresponding power allo- Hm;tj represents the data vector from eNB to the RN, and Nmi is the noise
P t PNj PM Pk  0

0 2
cation coefficients. Thus, the term Ni¼1 i¼1 i¼1 i¼1 Htj D m C m Prk in power due to interfering users ðm 6¼ mi Þ. Similarly, the channel capacity
PNt PNj PM Pk   
0 0 2 over the access link is given by
Eq. (5) is replaced by i¼1 i¼1 i¼1 i¼1 Htj D m C m vm  Prk for beam
 !
selection based sectored relaying. The resulting SINR of Eq. (4) is Nj X
T2 X Nr Xk X M Gm;jr E0 m;jr F 0 m;jr vm;jr 2
therefore formulated as CAL;kðvm Þ ¼ B2 log2 1 þ (13)
T i¼1 i¼1 i¼1 i¼1 Nmi
Nt X
X Nj X
M
gm ðSINRk;m;vm Þ ¼ gm max wm gm vm ðSINRm;k;vm Þ; k ¼ 1; 2; 3 (6) Gm;jr represents the data vector from the jth antenna of the kth positioned
i¼1 i¼1 i¼1 RN to the rth receive antenna of the UE. E 0 m;jr ; F 0 m;jr are the diagonal
The transmitting beam forming vector vm;tj from eNB to the RN for matrices on the access link carrying the data and non-negligible inter-
UEm affects the SINR of co-users mi 2
Cm;tj
. We define SINRk;m;vm experi- ference, respectively, from the kth positioned RN to the UE.
fmg
The total channel efficiency Rm;kðvm Þ in the contour via the kth sectored
enced by UEm as follows:
relay is given by,
PNt PNj PM Pk  H 2

0
i¼1 H m;tj C m;tj vm;tj
n o
SINRk;m;vm ¼ i¼1 i¼1
P
i¼1
 2 8m (7) Rm;kðvm Þ ¼ min CRL;kðvm Þ ; CAL;kðvm Þ (14)
N0 þ mii ¼ 1 H H mi ;tj C 0 mi ;tj vm;tj 
m 6¼ mi The variable set χ needs to be searched for solving nonconvex prob-
In order to maximize SINRk;m;vm , the beam forming vector vm;tj should lems. This leads to the exponential growth of the problem size, resulting
be defined as follows: in system complexity. The solution lies in maximizing the variable set χ
max f ðλÞ
 1 using Lagrange's dual problem as subject to ðλ  0Þ,
P χ
IminðNt ;Nj Þ þ ki¼1 C 0H mi ;tj Hmi ;tj H H mi ;tj C 0 mi ;tj Hm;tj
ðSINRÞ where λ ¼ ½λ1;k ; λ2;k ; …; λm;k  denotes the Lagrange multiplier vector.
vm;tj ¼  Pk 0H 1  (8)
 Thus, the overall end-to-end rate can be established using the following
k IminðNt ;Nj Þ þ i¼1 C mi ;tj Hmi ;tj H H mi; tj C 0 mi ;tj Hm;tj 
equation [20]:
where IminðNt ;Nj Þ is the the identity matrix of transmitting or receiving X
M X
k

antennas. This leads to the following corollary. maxχ Rm;kðvm Þ (15)

i¼1 i¼1
Corollary 1. The beam forming vector vm;tj ðSINRÞ maximizes SINRk;m;vm
Proof: We assume that the power allocation coefficients are constrained to subject to the conditions:T1 þ T2 ¼ T, pm;tj;kðvm;tj ÞRL  Pb ,pm;jr;kðvm;jr ÞAL  Prk ;
unity such that the following condition is satisfied: pm;tj;kðvm;tj ÞRL  0, & pm;jr;kðvm;jr ÞAL  0: Substituting Eq. (14) in Eq. (15), we
  get
vm;tj  ¼ 1 (9)
2
( )
PNt PNj PM Pk 0H X
M X
k
Letting X¼ i¼1 i¼1 i¼1 i¼1 C m;tj Hm;tj & Y ¼ IminðNt ;Nj Þ þ maxχ min CRL;kðvm Þ ; CAL;kðvm Þ (16)
Pmi
i¼1
C0H mi; tj Hmi; tj H H mi; tj C0 mi; tj , Eq. (8) can be written as i¼1 i¼1

m6¼mi To optimize the capacity and for equal power allocation, the argu-
ments in min (.) of Eq. (16) must be equal [21]; i.e,
ðSINRÞ vm;tj H XX H vm;tj
vm;tj ¼ (10)
vm;tj H Yvm;tj CRL;kðvm Þ ¼ CAL;kðvm Þ (17)

The optimal solution can be achieved by minimizing the denominator of Eq. Thus, Eq. (16) can be written as follows:
(10), subject to X H vm;tj ¼ 1. This leads to minimization of ( )
vm;tj H ðY þ XX H Þvm;tj H subject to vm;tj H X ¼ 1. Therefore, on solving, XM X k
1
maxχ CRL;kðvm Þ þ CAL;kðvm Þ (18)
i¼1 i¼1
2
H 1
vm;tj ¼ ðY þ XX Þ X (11)
In particular, the KKT condition is used to solve the convexity of Eq.
Eq. (11) shows the optimal solution for the beam forming vector vm;tj for (18) [22]. Thus, the Lagrangian function can be expressed as follows
the maximization of SINRk;m;vm . [13]:

123
J.A. Sheikh et al. Digital Communications and Networks 5 (2019) 121–130

"  !
XM Xk 1 XNt XNj Hm;tj D0 m;tj C 0 m;tj vm;tj 2
L ¼ i¼1 2T
T 1 B1 log2 1 þ
i¼1 i¼1 i¼1 Nmi
  !#
XNj XNr Gm;jr D m;jr C 0 m;jr vm;tj 2
0
T2 i¼1 i¼1 B2 log2 1 þ
Nmi
"  !
XM Xk λm;k XNt XNj Hm;tj D0 m;jr C 0 m;tj vm;tj 2
 i¼1 i¼1 T1 i¼1 i¼1 B1 log2 1 þ (19)
2T Nmi
  !#
XNj XNr Hm;tj D0 1 m;jr C 0 m;tj vm;tj 2 XM Xk  
T2 i¼1 i¼1 B2 log2 1 þ μm;k pm;tj v
Nmi i¼1 i¼1 m;tj;k vm;tj ÞRL

 
Pb Þ ρ  Prk  ðT1 B1 þ T2 B2 Þ
m;jr;k vm;jr ÞAL

"  !
XM X k
λm;k XNt XNj Hm;tj D0 m;tj C 0 m;tj vm;tj 2 XNj

where B1 and B2 may vary continuously in the domain [0 1], and μm;k T1 B1 log2 1 þ þ T2
i¼1 i¼1
2T i¼1 i¼1
Nmi i¼1
, ρm;k are Lagrangian multipliers associated with the mth user power   !#
XNr Gm;jr E0 m;jr F 0 m;jr vm;jr 2
constraint on the backhaul relay link and access link, respectively. After  B2 log2 1 þ
solving for ∂p ∂L ¼ 0 and ∂p ∂L ¼ 0, we obtain the optimal i¼1
Nmi1
m;tj;kðvm;tj ÞRL m;jr;kðvm;jr ÞAL " ! ! ! !#
X M X k
per-user power allocation coefficient on the backhaul relay and access ¼ μm;k pm;tj;k v RL  Pb ρm;k pm;jr;k v AL  Prk
links as follows: i¼1 i¼1
ð m;tj Þ ð m;jr Þ
(25)
"
2 #þ
T1 μm;k  λm;k Nmi From Eq. (25), we can prove the following optimal values for beam
p ¼ B1   (20)
m;tj;kðvm;tj ÞRL T 4μm;k loge 2 Hm;tj D0 m;tj C 0 m;tj vm;tj 2 forming vectors and power allocation coefficients on both backhaul relay
and access links as follows:
"
2 #þ " #
X
Nt X
Nj X
k X
M
T2 ρm;k  λm;k Nmi1 ¼ vmax λm;k Hm;tj D0 m;tj C 0 m;tj  μm;k p
p ¼ B2  2 (21) vm;tj;k;RL
m;tj;k ðvm;tj ÞRL
m;jr;k ðvm;jr ÞAL T 4ρm;k loge 2 Gm;jr E0 m;jr F 0 m;jr vm;jr  i¼1 i¼1 i¼1 i¼1

(26)
The stationary KKT condition implies that the beam forming vector vm
" #
for both the backhaul relay and the access link is the largest eigenvector X
Nj X
Nr X
k X
M

of vm;jr;k;AL ¼ vmax λm;k Gm;jr E0 m;jr F 0 m;jr  ρm;k p

m;jr;kðvm;jr ÞAL
i¼1 i¼1 i¼1 i¼1
"

X M X k
λm;k X Nt X
Nj (27)
L λm;k ; μm;k ; ρm;k ¼ T1 B1 log2 1
2T
i¼1 i¼1 i¼1 i¼1 PM Pk h
i
  ! μm;k
Hm;tj D0 m;tj C 0 m;tj vm;tj 2 XNj XNr
h
i¼1 i¼1
i
p ¼P (28)
þ þ T2 B2 log2 1 m;tj;k ðvm;tj ÞRL M Pk
Nmi i¼1 i¼1 i¼1 i¼1 μm;k vm;tj;k;RL H Pb vm;tj;k;RL
  !#
Gm;jr E0 m;jr F 0 m;jr vm;jr 2
þ (22) PM Pk h
i
Nmi1 i¼1 i¼1 ρm;k
" ! ! p ¼P h i (29)
X M X m;jr;kðvm;jr ÞAL M Pk
k
ρm;k vm;jr;k;AL H Prk vm;jr;k;AL
 μm;k pm;tj;k v RL  Pb i¼1 i¼1

i¼1 i¼1
ð m;tj Þ
! !# The operator vmax gives the dominating unit-norm eigen vector, and
P P
ρm;k pm;jr;k  Prk the parameters λm;k ; μm;k ; ρm;k are selected to satisfy ki¼1 M i¼1 λm;k ¼ 1:
ðvm;jr ÞAL
Eqs. (26)–(29) signify that a larger λm;k weight corresponds to an
increased positive impact on the signal power and a reduced negative
∂L ∂L
After solving for ∂vm;tj;k;RL ¼ 0 and ∂vm;jr;k;AL ¼ 0, the optimal beam impact on the interference power. In addition, the larger μm;k ; ρm;k weights
forming vectors for backhaul relay and access links will become indicate that the beam forming direction vm is shaped more precisely by
"
#þ the corresponding power coefficient. Eqs. (28) and (29) signify that the
XNt XNj Xk X M
μm;k Pb λm;k Hm;tj D0 m;tj C0 m;tj resulting power allocation will result in an overall improvement in the
vm;tj;k;RL ¼ þ (23)
i¼1 i¼1 i¼1 i¼1
pm;tj;k;RL Nmi throughput capacity of the relay and access links [23].
The Lagrangian dual function for both the links can therefore be
"
#þ formulated as follows:
XNj XNr Xk X M
ρm;k Prk λm;k Gm;jr E0 m;jr F 0 m;jr
¼ þ 8 9
vm;jr;k;AL (24)
> maxLðλm;k ; μm;k; p Pb ; vm;tj;k;RL >
pm;jr;k;AL Nmi >
> m;tj;k ðvm;tj ÞRL; >
>
i¼1 i¼1 i¼1 i¼1
> >

< XM X k
=
The strong duality of Eq. (22) implies the following condition: g λm;k ; μm;k ; vm;k ¼ s:t p  P ;
>
> m;tj;k ðvm;tj ÞRL;
b >
> (30)
>
> >
>
: i¼1 i¼1
;
vm;tj;k;RL  vmax
over relay link

124
J.A. Sheikh et al. Digital Communications and Networks 5 (2019) 121–130

8 9 Proof: We calculate the end to end rate (throughput) of a cell for the
> maxLðλm;k ; ρm;k; p Prk ; vm;jr;k;AL >
>
> m;jr;k ðvm;jr ÞAL; >
> access link positioned at different sectors. We have divided the cell into three
> >

< XM X k
= (k ¼ 3) sectors with RN positioned at each sector. Assuming that the access
g λm;k ; ρm;k ; vm;k ¼  ;
>
>
s:t p
m;jr;k ðvm;jr ÞAL;
P rk >
> (31) link positioned at each sector uses a fraction Rmk (k ¼ 1, 2, 3) of the total
>
> >
>
: i¼1 i¼1
; available resources R, then
vm;jr;k;AL  vmax
over access link R ¼ Rm1 þ Rm2 þ Rm3 (42)
Then dual optimization problem on both links is given by where Rm1 þ Rm2 þ Rm3 are the resources utilized by each sector of the cell,

respectively.
min λm;k ;μm;k ;vm;k λm;k ; μm;k ; vm;tj;k;RL ; over relay link (32)
The end-to-end throughput Gmk of the mth user for the kth sector access link

is given by
min λm;k ;ρm;k ;vm;k λm;k ; μm;k ; vm;jr;k;AL ; over access link (33)
Gmk ¼ minfRm1 G1 ; Rm2 G2 ; Rm3 G3 g=R (43)
The optimization problem of Eqs. (32) and (33) can be written in
terms of sub-gradients [22] as follows: where G1 ; G2 ; G3 , denote the throughputs of the three sectors s1 ; s2 ; s3
respectively.
X
M X
k
Δλm;k ðR:LÞ ¼ p Rmk ðvm Þ  vmax Pb ; over relay link (34) In the optimal case, when equal information is transferred over each link,
m;tj;k ðvm;tj ÞRL
i¼1 i¼1 the maximization of throughput is calculated as follows:

X
M X
k R:Gopt ¼ Rmk Gmk ; k ¼ 1; 2; 3 (44)
Δλm;k ðA:LÞ ¼ p Rmk ðvm Þ  vmax Prk ; over access link
m;jr;kðvm;jr ÞAL
i¼1 i¼1
Gopt ¼ Rmk Gmk =R (45)
(35)
Gopt ¼ Rmk Gmk =ðRm1 þ Rm2 þ Rm3 Þ (46)
M X
X k
Δμm;k ¼ vmax Pb  p Pb ; over relay link (36) Because, Rmk is the fraction of total available resources R utilized by the
m;tj;k ðvm;tj ÞRL
i¼1 i¼1
mth user of the kth positioned relay over access link,

X
M X
k M X
X k
Δρm;k ¼ vmax Prk  p Prk ; over access link (37) R¼ Rmk (47)
m;jr;kðvm;jr ÞAL
i¼1 i¼1 i¼1 i¼1

Variable updating for the (nþ1)th step will occur as follows: If gm ðvm Þ represents a monotonically increasing user function for the beam
" !#þ forming vector vm , then
M X
X k
λm;k ðn þ 1Þ ¼ λm;k ðnÞ þ ξðnÞ vmax Pb  p Pb Rmk ðvm Þ ; !
m;tj;k ðvm;tj ÞRL X
M X
k
i¼1 i¼1
Rðvm Þ ¼ gm Rmk vmk (48)
over relay link i¼1 i¼1

(38) The end to end throughput for the kth positioned RN is given by
" !#þ
M X
X k X
M X
k

λm;k ðn þ 1Þ ¼ λm;k ðnÞ þ ξðnÞ vmax Prk  p Prk Rmk ðvm Þ ; Ge2e¼min Rmk Gmk =Rðvm Þ (49)
m;jr;kðvm;jr ÞAL i¼1 i¼1
i¼1 i¼1

over access link PM Pk

(39) P
i¼1 i¼1 Rmk Gmk 
Ge2e¼min (50)
M Pk
gm i¼1 Rmk vmk
" !#þ i¼1
X
M X
k
μm;k ðn þ 1Þ ¼ μm;k ðnÞ þ θðnÞ p
m;tj;k ðvm;tj ÞRL
Pb  vmax Pb
X
M X
k
Gmk ðvmk Þ1
i¼1 i¼1
¼ (51)
over relay link i¼1 i¼1

(40) The Cumulative Distribution Function (CDF) of the access link for the k-th
" !#þ positioned RN will be formulated as
X
M X
k
ρm;k ðn þ 1Þ ¼ ρm;k ðnÞ þ θðnÞ p Prk  vmax Prk ;

m;jr;kðvm;jr ÞAL Fm;k ðGe2e Þ ¼ Fm;k ð h1 ðGe2e Þ (52)

i¼1 i¼1

over access link The SINR of the access link can thus be formulated as follows:
(41) 0 1
,
B Ge2e
C
where ξðnÞ and θðnÞ are the step sizes, and n is the iteration index. The SINR ¼ @2 Aa  1A Ba ¼ h1 ðGe2e Þ (53)
sub-gradient method allows us to converge optimal dual variables by
choosing the diminishing step size policy [13,24].
where Aa and Ba are the bandwidth and SINR efficiency factors respectively
Corollary 2. Achievable maximum end-to-end user rate (throughput) for
and differ from the relay link parameters because the antenna configurations
optimal resource allocation
used here are different.

125
J.A. Sheikh et al.
4. Algorithm
In this section, we develop brief algorithms justifying the proposed
analytical approach and derived corollaries for achieving significant
SINR improvement and improved capacity for the end-to-end link rate.
The description of the proposed algorithm is explained in the following
steps.
In step 1, the initialization for M number of users has been set, and the
power at eNB and at the kth positioned relay has been set to Pb and Prk ,
respectively. The received combining vector employed at the UE is a
subset of the number of receiving antennas. First, the kth relay selection
and sub-carrier allocation are performed for the mth user over the back-
haul relay link.
In step 2, we calculate the SINR of the mth user for antenna selection
sectored relaying using Eq. (5). For antenna and beam selection sectored
ðSINRÞ
relaying (ASSR and BSSR), the beam forming vector vm;tj is defined
using Eq. (8). The SINR for LOS communication for the combination of
antenna and beam selection sectored relaying (ASSR and BSSR) is
calculated using Eq. (7). Step 2 is repeated until all users are satisfied, and
for every kth relay position, updates of SINRk;m , SINRk;m;vm , using Eqs. (5)
and (7), respectively, have been made. The following subsection presents
the algorithm for SINR improvement.
Algorithm 2 provides a distributed solution to the resource allocation
problem and includes steps where beam forming vectors are rescaled to
satisfy all power constraints on both the backhaul relay and the access
126
Digital Communications and Networks 5 (2019) 121–130
link, and the corresponding user performance is evaluated. First, relay
selection and sub-carrier assignment are performed for all M users. Again,
the power of eNB and the power at the kth relay are confined to Pb and Prk ,
respectively. The capacity of each mth user is then adjusted individually
using the analytical solution described in Section 3. In step 2, power
allocation has been performed to optimize the power while maintaining
the basic transmission rate. The power allocation has also been per-
formed by using the analytical solution presented in Section 3.
In the third step, beam selection is performed using beam forming vec-
tors that are rescaled to satisfy all power constraints equally and optimal
values for beam forming vectors for both the backhaul relay and the access
link are evaluated using Eqs. (26) and (27), respectively. The Lagrangian
multipliers λm;k ; μm;k ; ρm;k are updated using Eqs. (38)–(41) by employing
the sub-gradient method already discussed in Section 3. Finally, the optimal
power constraint coefficients on both the wireless backhaul and the access
link are evaluated using Eqs. (28) and (29), respectively, for capacity
enhancement on the backhaul relay and the access link.
The optimization problem of Eq. (18) is a convex optimization
problem that can be solved if the power allocation coefficients on both
the backhaul relay and the access link are constrained to less or equal to
unity. Thus, the convexity of Eq. (18) is solved in the termination step by
confining the power allocation coefficients on both the backhaul relay
and the access link to unity and satisfying all constraints. The following
subsection presents the algorithm for capacity improvement of a 4G LTE-
A tri-sectored cell.
J.A. Sheikh et al.
5. Results and discussions
Consider a single cell LTE-A network with a radius of 1 km with eNB
located at the center of the cell and relays deployed at different sectors
(k ¼ 1, 2, 3). For cell edge deployment of RNs, the relays are located at a
radius of δ km from eNB at equiangular distances, δ varies between 0.1
and 0.9, and for cell central deployment the relays are located at a radius
of δ/2. The deployment of relays at different k positions is done to show
the effects of SR on the performance of the cell. Users are uniformly
distributed in a cell forming a contour and follow the Gaussian distri-
bution. To evaluate the performance of our proposed system model, re-
sults are generated using a simulation setup. The Cumulative Distribution
127
Digital Communications and Networks 5 (2019) 121–130
Function (CDF) is used for system performance evaluation. Two rate
measures, i.e., the 5th and 50th percentiles, corresponding to the cell edge
and cell central users, are usually documented for simulation results. The
system parameters are given in Table 1 and are in accordance with the 4G
LTE-A standard. After formulating the whole simulation, the optimal
SINR setup, relay and access link rates, and coverage are evaluated using
the derived mathematical formulations and proposed algorithms.
Fig. 1 shows the SINR of the relay link as a function of the CDF, for cell
edge deployment of RNs. The CDF plots are based on the analytical
formulation of Eqs. (3), (5), and (7). The impact of SR and the beam
forming vector vm;tj (BSSR) on the CDF of the SINR can be modeled as in
Eqs. (4) and (6). When using a combination of antenna selection and
J.A. Sheikh et al. Digital Communications and Networks 5 (2019) 121–130

Table 1
Parameters for simulation as per 4G LTE-A standard.
Parameters Assumptions

Network Tri-sector cell

Carrier frequency 2 GHz
Bandwidth 10 MHz
OFDM symbols 1024
OFDM symbol duration 102.86 μs
eNB antenna gain 15 Db
eNB transmit power 1W
Cell radius 1000 m
No of relays per cell 3
No of relay node per sector 1
Relay node transmit power 2W
Relay type Decode and Forward
Path loss exponent α, lfix 3.53,141.6
Path loss direct link αd 10σ fix=10 *ðd0 =2Þη
d0 is the distance between eNB and UE
Path loss for kth positioned relay 10σ fix=10 *ðdk =2Þη dk is the distance of UE to kth relay

Fig. 2. Relay link SINR as a function of the CDF for cell central deployment
of RNs.

Fig. 1. Relay link SINR as a function of CDF for cell edge deployment of RNs.

Fig. 3. CDF of end-to-end rate vs. access link SINR for cell edge deployment
beam selection (AS þ BS) SR on the relay link, a significant gain is
of RNs.
achieved for all k positions of relays. The SINR for the 5th percentile level
of the CDF due to the fact that eNB is almost 0 dB. However, with the
Fig. 4 shows the achieved end-to-end rate (bps/Hz) for different ac-
deployment of relays at the predefined positions of k (k ¼ 1, 2, 3), the
cess link SINR values, considering cell central deployment of RNs. At 5th
improvement in the relay link SINR becomes more prominent. When
percentile level of the CDF, the SR, with k ¼ 1 does not have any sig-
utilizing (AS þ BS) SR, with k ¼ 3, gains of 5.2 dB and 7.1 dB are achieved
nificant influence on the SINR because the RNs are confined to cell
at the 5th and 50th percentile CDF levels, respectively.
centers and the cell edge users exhibit greater path losses, with lognormal
Fig. 2 shows the SINR of the relay link as a function of the CDF for cell
shadowing. For k ¼ 1, the SINRs due to ASSR, (AS þ BS) SR, and eNB are
central deployment of RNs. This is done to achieve higher capacity gains,
almost the same (4.1 dB), at the 5th percentile level CDF. Thus, the 5th
especially for cell central users. The figure depicts that even the cell edge
percentile rate level is clearly independent of the access link quality at
users, when using (AS þ BS) SR, with k ¼ 3, achieve the optimal SINR of
this position. The SINRs due to ASSR and (AS þ BS) SR with k ¼ 3 are also
21 dB. A gain of 440% is achieved for (AS þ BS) SR, with k ¼ 3, at the 50th
almost the same (14 dB) at the 5th percentile rate CDF level. At the 50th
percentile CDF level.
percentile level of the CDF using (AS þ BS) SR with k ¼ 3, the SINR in-
Fig. 3 shows the achieved end to end rate (bps/Hz) of different access
creases to 22 dB. Thus, an overall gain of 450% for the end-to-end rate of
link SINR values for cell edge deployment of RNs. The end-to-end rate
the access link is achieved. Note that the results obtained in Figs. 3 and 4
due to eNB is negative (the curve may intercept the negative x-axis) for
are based on Eqs. (52) and (53) of corollary 2.
the 5th percentile CDF level. Thus, cell edge users exhibit no coverage or
The direct link SINR (the SINR due to eNB) is calculated using the
connectivity in the absence of relays. The deployment of relays at the
following expression:
predefined positions of k enhances the SINR of the access link, leading to
an overall increase in the end-to-end rate of the access link. SR with

γ d ¼ 2Rd =Ad  1 Bd ¼ h1 ðRd Þ (54)
k ¼ 1enhances the SINR of the access link for the 5th percentile CDF level
to 1 dB. When using (AS þ BS) SR, with k ¼ 3, the SINR increases to 7 dB. where γ d is the direct link SINR, Rd is the direct link rate, and Ad and Bd,
Thus, an overall gain of 600% for the end-to-end rate is achieved at the respectively, are the bandwidth and SINR efficiency factors of the direct
5th percentile CDF level.

128
J.A. Sheikh et al. Digital Communications and Networks 5 (2019) 121–130

Fig. 4. CDF of end-to-end rate vs. mean access link SINR for cell central
deployment of RNs.

Fig. 7. Cell coverage vs. access link SINR.

Fig. 5. CDF of relay link and access link rates for cell edge deployment of RNs.
Fig. 6. CDF of the relay and access link throughput capacity with optimal
power allocation.
link.
where g is the eNB antenna gain, INr is the identity matrix of the receiving
antennas, and H is the channel matrix carrying data from eNB to UE. We
calculate the CDF of Rd for the performance evaluation as depicted in our
plots.
Fig. 5 represents the CDF of the relay and access link rates for cell
edge deployment of RNs. The results obtained are based on the analysis
done in Section 3 and the MIMO channel modeling of the system model.
Fig. 5 indicates a good gain on both the links, from the usage of ASSR and
(AS þ BS) SR. SR does not provide any significant improvement in the
rate gain at lower percentile CDF levels, for all k positions. The link rates
of 7.5 bps/Hz and 14 bps/Hz are achieved at the 5th and 50th percentile
CDF levels, respectively, by enabling (AS þ BS) SR. Thus, a gain of
approximately 650% and 370% are achieved for cell edge and cell central
users, respectively. From the figure, it can be seen that at all k positions
for higher percentile CDF levels the ASSR link rate becomes less than the
SR link rate. This is because MIMO channel modeling works well for cell
edge users, where Non-Line-Of-Sight (NLOS) communication prevails.
However, the proposed (AS þ BS) SR enhances the link rate at all k po-
sitions of the cell.
Fig. 6 shows the relay and access link throughput capacity with
optimal power and resource allocation. The results are based on the sub-
gradient convergence method used in Section 3. After evaluating the
optimal values for beam forming vectors and power constraints using
Eqs. (26)–(29), the total channel efficiency (throughput) capacity is
calculated using Eq. (18). The calculated value reveals the gain on both
the 5th and 50th percentile CDF level. Therefore, the optimal power
allocation for the combination of antenna selection and beam-selection-
based SR can be used to maximize the capacity of the LTE-A cell. The
achievable rates for the 5th and 50th percentile CDF levels for (AS þ BS)
SR with k ¼ 3 are approximately 8.5 bps/Hz and 9.9 bps/Hz, respec-
tively. Thus, gains of approximately 750% and 444.44% are achieved for
cell edge and cell central users, respectively. Note that the RN deploy-
ment at the cell edge for Figs. 5 and 6 is done to reflect the coverage
performance of the LTE-A system. This is more precisely shown in Fig. 7,
where we plot the mean access link SINR as a function of the cell
coverage (bps/Hz).
Fig. 7 shows the gain in cell coverage vs. the mean access link SINR,
assuming optimum resource allocation between the two links and a good
access link quality with an optimum SINR of 20 dB. A 600% gain in the
   coverage area is achieved, while the SINR increases from 2 dB to 20 dB
Rd ¼ log det INr þ
gPb
HH0 (55) considering (AS þ BS) SR with k ¼ 3. Hence, the need for SR, antenna
Nt selection, and beam-selection-based SR is justified for a broader coverage

129
J.A. Sheikh et al.
area, with lower channel losses especially at the cell borders.
6. Conclusion
In this paper, the deployment flexibility of relay nodes and resource
allocation in tri-sectored cooperative LTE-A based downlink systems has
been investigated. Antenna and beam-selection-based SR planning for
SINR improvement and a power allocation scheme under total power
constraint has been proposed. The optimization problem has been solved
using the KKT condition and the optimal values for the beam forming
vector for both the wireless backhaul and the access link have been
derived with the aim of maximizing the overall end to end throughput of
individual users. Two rate measures, i.e., the 5th and 50th percentiles
corresponding to cell edge users and cell central users, respectively, have
been fixed. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme
achieves significant improvement in system throughput, SINR and cell
coverage area for cell central users and cell edge users, to take into ac-
count their poor connectivity and coverage area. In future, the RNs can be
made self-organized by allowing them to switch their coordination be-
tween the neighboring eNBs on the basis of the traffic load in a sector and
their serving capacity. The efficiency of the system will improve even
when there is variable rate requirement of users in a nonuniform traffic
distribution scenario, and load balancing will also be achieved.
References
[1] 3GPP, TR-36.913 v8.0.1, Requirements for Further Advancements for E-UTRA,
March 2009, pp. 1–17.
[2] S. Parkvall, A. Furuska, E. Dahlman, Evolution of LTE toward IMT-A, IEEE Commun.
Mag. 49 (2) (2011) 84–91.
[3] R. Schoenen, B.H. Walke, On PHY and MAC performance of 3GLTE in a multi-hop
cellular environment, in: Proceedings of the WiCom, 21-25 September, 2007,
pp. 926–929.
[4] D. Soldani, S. Dixit, Wireless relays for broadband access [radio communications
series], IEEE Commun. Mag. 46 (3) (2008) 58–66.
[5] W. Zhuang, M. Ismail, Cooperation in wireless communication networks, IEEE
Wirel. Commun. 19 (2) (2012) 10–20.
[6] Yan Li, Lingjia Liu, Hongxiang Li, Jianzhong Zhang, Yang Yi, Resource allocation
for delay-sensitive traffic over LTE –A relay networks, IEEE Trans. Wirel. Commun.
14 (8) (2015) 4291–4303.
[7] A. Bletsas, A. Khisti, D.P. Reed, A. Lippman, A simple cooperative diversity method
based on network path selection, IEEE J. Sel. Areas Commun. 24 (3) (2006)
659–672.
130
Digital Communications and Networks 5 (2019) 121–130
[8] A. Bletsas, H. Shin, M.Z. Win, Cooperative communications with outage-optimal
opportunistic relaying, IEEE Trans. Wirel. Commun. 6 (9) (2007) 3450–3460.
[9] J. Cai, X. Shen, J. Mark, A. Alfa, Semi-distributed user relaying algorithm for
amplify-and-forward wireless relay networks, IEEE Trans. Wirel. Commun. 7 (4)
(2008) 1348–1357.
[10] W. Dang, M. Tao, H. Mu, J. Huang, Subcarrier-pair based resource allocation for
cooperative multi- relay OFDM systems, IEEE Trans. Wirel. Commun. 9 (5) (2010)
1640–1649.
[11] S. Kadloor, R. Adve, Relay selection and power allocation in cooperative cellular
networks, IEEE Trans. Wirel. Commun. 9 (5) (2010) 1676–1685.
[12] S. Khakurel, M. Mehta, A. Karandikar, Optimal relay placement for coverage
extension in LTE-A cellular systems, in: Proceedings of 2012 IEEE National Conf.
Commun.3–5 February, 2012.
[13] Md Shamsul Alam, Jon W. Mark, Xuemin Sherman Shen, Relay selection and
resource allocation for multi-user cooperative OFDMA networks, IEEE Trans. Wirel.
Commun. 12 (5) (2013) 2193–2205.
[14] A.B. Saleh, O. Bulakci, J. Hamalainen, S. Redana, B. Raaf, Analysis of the impact of
site planning on the performance of relay deployments, IEEE Trans. Veh. Technol.
61 (7) (2012) 3139–3150.
[15] Mattia Minelli, Maode Ma, Marceau Coupechoux, Jean-Marc Kelif, Marc Sigelle,
Philippe Godlewski, Optimal relay placement in cellular networks, IEEE Trans.
Wirel. Commun. 13 (2) (2014) 998–1008.
[16] M.H. Islam, Z. Dziong, K. Sohraby, M.F. Daneshmand, R. Jana, Capacity-optimal
relay and base station placement in wireless networks, in: Proceedings of 2012 IEEE
Int. Conf. Inf. Netw. 1–3 February, 2012.
[17] W. Guo, T.O. Farrell, Relay deployment in cellular networks: planning and
optimization, IEEE J. Sel. Areas Commun. 31 (8) (2013) 1597–1606.
[18] Qian Li, Rose Qingyang Hu, Qian Yi, Geng Wu, Intracell Cooperation and resource
allocation in a heterogeneous network with relays, IEEE Trans. Veh. Technol. 62 (4)
(2013) 1770–1784.
[19] Paul Arnold, Veselin Rakocevic, Oscar Ramos, Joachim Habermann, Algorithms for
adaptive radio resource management in relay-assisted LTE-A networks, in:
Proceedings of 77th IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference, 2-5 June, 2013,
pp. 1–5.
[20] Xiaoxia Zhang, Xuemin Sherman Shen, Liang-Liang Xie, Joint subcarrier and power
allocation for cooperative communications in LTE-A networks, IEEE Trans. Wirel.
Commun. 13 (2) (2014) 658–668.
[21] S.H. Song, Ali F. Almutairi, K.B. Letaief, Outage-capacity based adaptive relaying in
LTE-A networks, IEEE Trans. Wirel. Commun. 12 (9) (2013) 4778–4787.
[22] Honghao Ju, Ben Liang, Jiandong Li, Xiaoniu Yang, Dynamic joint resource
optimization for LTE-A relay networks, IEEE Trans. Wirel. Commun. 12 (11) (2013)
5668–5678.
[23] A. Liu, Y. Liu, H. Xiang, W. Luo, Polite water-filling for weighted sum-rate
maximization in MIMO B-MAC networks under multiple linear constraints, IEEE
Trans. Signal Process 60 (2) (2012) 834–847.
[24] Monowar Hasan, Ekram Hossain, Dong In Kim, Resource allocation under channel
uncertainties for relay-aided device-to-device communication underlaying LTE-A
cellular networks, IEEE Trans. Wirel. Commun. 13 (4) (2014) 2322–2338.