NC²R: Network Coding-Aware Cooperative Relaying for Downlink Cellular Networks

Cooperative relaying and network coding have attracting more attention recently. In this paper, we combine these two techniques together and present a Network Coding-aware Cooperative Relaying (NC²R) scheme for downlink cellular networks, in which two relay nodes are used to assist base stations in transmitting signals to cell-edge users. Moreover, we analyze its SINR performance and its spectral efficiency. Extensive simulations show that NC²R greatly improves the downlink transmission performance for users located near celledge regions, and outperforms existing known relaying schemes in terms of blocking probability and spectral efficiency. In addition, the effects of relay position on the performance of NC²R are also discussed.