Communication system and method using a relay node

• US 7,555,035 B2
• Filed: 08/30/2005
• Issued: 06/30/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Original Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Inventors: Yoshino, Hitoshi, Asai, Takahiro, Shi, Hui, Abe, Tetsushi
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran; Khanh C
• Application Number:
  US11/213,883
• Publication Number:
  US 20060050655A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,400 Days
• Field of Search: 375/211, 375/213, 375/219, 375/267, 375/295, 375/299, 375/316, 375/349, 370/226, 370/274, 370/279, 370/315
• US Class Current: 375/211
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/026 Co-operative diversity, e.g. using fixed or mobile stations as relays
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/15528 Control of operation parameters of a relay station to exploit the physical medium
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0618 Space-time coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/0204 of multiple channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/0228 with direct estimation from sounding signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/0246 with factorisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/20 Repeater circuits; Relay circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/46 in multi hop networks, e.g. wireless relay networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/04 adapted for relaying to or from another terminal or user

Abstract

A communication node that relays signals between a source node and a destination node includes (a) a first unitary matrix calculation unit configured to calculate a first unitary matrix based on a first channel between the source node and the relay node, (b) a second unitary matrix calculation unit configured to calculate a second unitary matrix based on a second channel between the relay node and the destination node, (c) a transformation matrix estimation unit configured to estimate a transformation matrix based on a triangular matrix derived from QR decomposition of the first and/or second channel matrix, (d) a relaying signal generator configured to generates a relaying signal by multiplying a received signal by at least one of the first unitary matrix, the second unitary matrix, and the transformation matrix, and (e) a transmission unit configured to transmit the relaying signal to the destination node.

Claims

1. A wireless communication system for delivering a transmission signal from a source node via a plurality of relay nodes toward a destination node,

wherein each of the relay nodes comprises:

a QR decomposition unit configured to perform QR decomposition on a first channel matrix between the source node and the relay node and/or a second channel matrix between the relay node and the destination node;

a transformation matrix calculation unit configured to calculate one or more transformation matrices based on the QR of at least one of the first and second channel matrices;

a relaying signal generator configured to generate a relaying signal by multiplying a received signal by a prescribed signal comprised of at least one of the transformation matrices; and

a transmission unit configured to transmit the relaying signal to the destination node; and

wherein the destination node receives the relaying signal as a received signal and detects a desired signal from the received signal.

2. The wireless communication system of claim 1, wherein the destination node detects the desired signal from the received signal using a successive interference canceling method.

3. The wireless communication system of claim 1, further comprising:

a feedback channel from the destination node via the relay nodes to the source node;

wherein the destination node estimates values including a data rate and a power level of the transmission signal on the basis of a channel estimation value, and feeds back the values to the source node via the feed back channel.

4. The wireless communication system of claim 1, wherein each of the relay nodes further comprises:

a signal detection unit configured to detect the transmission signal on the basis of a signal received from the source node and the first channel matrix representing the channel between the source node and the relay node;

wherein the relaying signal generator generates the relaying signal by multiplying the detected signal by said at least one of the transformation matrix and a unitary matrix derived from the second channel matrix.

5. A communication node that relays signals between a source node and a destination node, comprising:

a first unitary matrix calculation unit configured to calculate a first unitary matrix based on a first channel between the source node and the communication node;

a second unitary matrix calculation unit configured to calculate a second unitary matrix based on a second channel between the communication node and the destination node;

a transformation matrix estimation unit configured to estimate a transformation matrix on the basis of a triangular matrix derived from QR decomposition of the first and/or the second channel matrix;

a relaying signal generator configured to generates a relaying signal by multiplying a received signal by at least one of the first unitary matrix, the second unitary matrix, and the transformation matrix; and

a transmission unit configured to transmit the relaying signal to the destination node.

6. The communication node of claim 5, further comprising:

a signal detector configured to detect a transmission signal transmitted from the source node, based on the received signal, using the first unitary matrix;

wherein the relaying signal generator generates the relaying signal by multiplying the detected transmission signal by at least one of the transformation matrix and the second unitary matrix.

7. The communication node of claim 5, wherein

the first unitary matrix calculation unit calculates the first unitary matrix by breaking down the first channel matrix into the form of a product containing a first triangular matrix, and

the second unitary matrix calculation unit calculates the second unitary matrix by breaking down the second channel matrix into the form of a product containing a second triangular matrix.

8. The communication node of claim 5, wherein a matrix element in the i-th line and the j-th column of the transformation matrix is zero if i+j is not a prescribed value.

9. A communication node that relays signals between a source node and a destination node, comprising:

a first matrix calculation unit configured to calculate a unitary matrix based on one of a first channel matrix between the destination node and the communication node;

a second matrix calculation unit configured to calculate a Moore-Penrose inverse matrix based on a second channel matrix between the source node and the communication node;

a transformation matrix calculation unit configured to calculate a transformation matrix on the basis of a triangular matrix derived from QR decomposition of the second matrix;

a relaying signal generator configured to generate a relaying signal by multiplying a received signal by the unitary matrix, Moore-Penrose inverse matrix, and the transformation matrix; and

a transmission unit configured to transmit the relaying signal.

10. A communication node that relays signals between a source node and a destination node, comprising:

a first matrix calculation unit configured to calculate a unitary matrix based on one of a first channel matrix between the source node and the communication node;

a second matrix calculation unit configured to calculate a Moore-Penrose inverse matrix based on a second channel matrix between the destination node and the communication node;

a transformation matrix calculation unit configured to calculate a transformation matrix based on a triangular matrix derived from QR decomposition of the second matrix;

a relaying signal generator configured to generate a relaying signal by multiplying a received signal by the unitary matrix, Moore-Penrose inverse matrix, and the transformation matrix; and

a transmission unit configured to transmit the relaying signal.

11. The communication node of claim 9 or 10, wherein the communication node feeds information about a rate and a transmit power of the transmission signal measured at the destination node back to the source node.

12. A communication method for relaying a transmission signal transmitted from a source node via a plurality of relay nodes to a destination node, the method comprising the steps of:

performing a QR decomposition on a first channel matrix between the source node and a relay node or a second channel matrix between the relay node and the destination node;

calculating one or more transformation matrices based on the QR decomposition of at least one of the first and second channel matrices;

generating a relaying signal by multiplying a prescribed signal by at least one of the transformation matrices;

transmitting the relaying signal from the relay node to the destination node; and

receiving the relaying signal and detecting a desired signal from the received signal at the destination node.

13. A communication method for relaying a transmission signal transmitted from a source node via a relay node to a destination node, comprising the steps of:

estimating a first unitary matrix based on a first channel matrix between the source node and the relay node;

estimating a second unitary matrix based on a second channel matrix between the relay node and the destination node;

estimating a transformation matrix based on a triangular matrix derived from QR decomposition of the first and/or second channel matrix;

generating a relaying signal by multiplying a received signal by at least one of the first unitary matrix, the second unitary matrix, and the transformation matrix;

transmitting the relaying signal from the relay node to the destination node; and

receiving the relaying signal and detecting a desired signal from the received signal at the destination node.

14. A communication method for relaying a transmission signal transmitted from a source node via a relay node to a destination node, comprising the steps of:

calculating a unitary matrix and a Moore-Penrose inverse matrix based on channel matrices of wireless transmission channels;

calculating a transformation matrix on the basis of a triangular matrix derived from QR decomposition of at least one of the channel matrices;

generating a relaying signal by multiplying a received signal by the unitary matrix, the Moore-Penrose inverse matrix, and the transformation matrix;

transmitting the relaying signal from the relay node to the destination node; and

receiving the relaying signal and detecting a desired signal from the received signal at the destination node.

15. A communication node for relaying a signal between a source node and a destination node, comprising:

a relaying signal generator configured to generate a relaying signal based on a received signal; and

a transmission unit configured to transmit the relaying signal to the destination node,

wherein the relaying signal generator adaptively selects one of first through third signal generation modes,

in the first mode, the signal generator calculates a first unitary matrix based on a first channel matrix between the source node and a relay node, a second unitary matrix based on a second channel matrix between the destination node and the relay node, and a transformation matrix based on the triangular matrix derived from QR decomposition of the first and/or the second matrix to generate the relaying signal by multiplying the received signal by at least one of the first unitary matrix, the second unitary matrix, and the transformation matrix;

in the second mode, the signal generator calculates a Moore-Penrose inverse matrix based on the first channel matrix between the source node and the relay node, a unitary matrix based on the second channel matrix between the destination node and the relay node, and a transformation matrix based on the triangular matrix derived from QR decomposition of the first and/or the second channel matrix to generate the relaying signal by multiplying the unitary matrix, the Moore-Penrose inverse matrix and the transformation matrix; and

in the third mode, the signal generator calculates a unitary matrix based on the first channel matrix between the source node and the relay node, a Moore-Penrose inverse matrix based on the second channel matrix between the destination node and the relay node, and a transformation matrix based on the triangular matrix derived from QR decomposition of the first and/or the second channel matrix to generate the relaying signal by multiplying the unitary matrix, the Moore-Penrose inverse matrix and the transformation matrix.