High Capacity Relay Protocols for Wireless Networks

Over the last five years, relaying or multihop techniques have been intensively researched as means for potentially improving link performance of wireless networks. However, the data rates of relays are often limited because they cannot transmit and receive on the same frequency simultaneously. This limitation has come to the attention of researchers, and recently a number of relay techniques have been proposed specifically to improve the data efficiency of relaying protocols. This paper surveys transmission protocols that employ first single relays, then multiple relays and finally multiple antenna relays. A common feature of these techniques is that novel signal processing techniques are required in the relay network to support increased data rates. This paper presents results and discussion that highlight the advantages of these approaches.