Analysis of MIMO Relay Chains

Abstract

This thesis is split into two parts: first a statistical analysis of multi-hop MIMO relay networks, followed by a simulation of the perfomance of a P25 SISO multi-hop relay network. The basis of the MIMO section is the developement of an end to end statistical model of the multiple relay channel. This end to end model simplifies the statistics involved, making the analysis of systems with large numbers of relays and antennas more practical. A partial system model is obtained. This is exact for a multiple input single output network and can be used to describe the received signal at a single antenna in a multiple output system. We go on to look at the relationship between end to end system parameters and the paramters of individual inter-relay channels. The SISO section contains a characterisation of BER for P25 relay chains. The effect of the SNR at each relay node, the nature of the channel and the number of relay hops on the BER is determined. Furthermore, the performance trends are compared for a range of common relaying protocols, including amplify and forward and two types of decode and forward.