Open-field emulation of cooperative relaying in LTE-A downlink using the GNU radio platform

Long Term Evolution-Advanced plans the adoption of cooperative relaying in order to extend coverage and improve quality of service of future-generation mobile wireless networks. In the present article, we propose the usage of open source GNU radio tools to build a full-software-defined radio implementation of cooperative relaying for an LTE-A downlink connection. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness, tested in open field, of the cooperative relaying in terms of augmented coverage and improved throughput, with a substantial added value provided by the SDR implementation in terms of both algorithmic flexibility and network reconfigurability.