An Improved Receive Diversity Combining

Technique for SC-FDMA-based Cooperative Relays

*Kyung Soo Woo, *Yeong Jun Kim, *Hyun Il Yoo, **Jaekwon Kim, ***Sangboh Yun, and *Yong Soo Cho
*School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Chung-Ang University, KOREA
**Computer & Telecommunications Engineering Division, Yonsei University, KOREA
***Telecommunication R&D Center, Samsung Electronics Co., LTD, KOREA
Email: yscho@cau.ac.kr
AbstractIn this paper, two receive diversity combining tech-
niques are proposed for cooperative relay systems based on
single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA)
when DFT spreading sizes for a mobile station (MS) and relay
station (RS) are different. A simplied-MRC (S-MRC) technique
performs diversity combining in the time-domain by using the
estimated channel weights and initial estimates obtained by
SC-FDMA signal detector. An interference rejection-MRC (IR-
MRC) technique performs diversity combining in the frequency-
domain by adjusting DFT spreading size at the receiver. It
is shown by computer simulation that the proposed receive
combining techniques achieve a signicant diversity gain over
the conventional ones.
Index TermsSC-FDMA, multi-hop relay, cooperative relay,
S-MRC, IR-MRC
I. INTRODUCTION
Multi-hop relay (MR) networks have garnered signicant
attention as an extension of conventional single-hop cellular
networks by combining a xed cellular infrastructure with
multi-hop relaying technology [1]. Fixed relay-based cellular
networks can reduce the propagation losses between a base
station (BS) and a mobile station (MS) by passing through
a relay station (RS). The MR can be used effectively for
throughput enhancement at shadowing regions and for cell
coverage extension [2]. Recently, cooperative relays have been
proposed in a variety of ways to achieve the benets of spatial
diversity, higher throughput, and lower energy consumption
[3]. On the other hand, single carrier-frequency division mul-
tiple access (SC-FDMA) was selected for uplink transmission
in 3GPP long term evolution (LTE) due to its low PAPR
properties compared to OFDMA [4]. Currently, the MR system
based on SC-FDMA is considered as one of strong candidate
techniques for uplink in LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) [5].
When spreading sizes of discrete Fourier transform (DFT)
in MSs and RSs are the same in SC-FDMA-based cooperative
relays, the sizes of subcarriers over which data symbols are
spread in the frequency-domain for MSs and RSs are the same.
In this case, the receive diversity combining can be easily
performed in the frequency-domain by using the conventional
maximum ratio combining (MRC) technique after fast Fourier
transform (FFT) processing. However, in a more general
situation where spreading sizes of DFT in MSs and RSs are
different, the conventional MRC technique cannot be used
Fig. 1. An example of receive diversity for an SC-FDMA-based cooperative
relay
for receive diversity combining in the frequency-domain since
data symbols are spread over different sizes of subcarriers.
A maximum likelihood (ML) detection technique with a high
computational complexity is required to detect the transmitted
symbol in this case.
In this paper, two receive diversity combining techniques
are proposed for SC-FDMA-based cooperative relay systems
when DFT spreading sizes for MSs and RSs are different. The
rst technique named as a simplied-MRC (S-MRC) performs
diversity combining in the time-domain by using the estimated
channel weights and initial estimates obtained by SC-FDMA
detector. The second technique named as an interference
rejection-MRC (IR-MRC) performs diversity combining in
the frequency-domain by adjusting DFT spreading size at
the receiver. Performances of the proposed techniques are
evaluated by computer simulation.
II. PRELIMINARIES
Fig. 1 shows a typical scenario of receive diversity for SC-
FDMA-based cooperative relays. Each transmission period is
divided into two phases. In the rst phase, MSs transmit their
own information while RS and BS listen. In the second phase,
RS retransmits the received information while BS listens. The
received signal from the uth MS,Y
u
, and the received signal
from RS,Y
R
, both at BS can be expressed in a matrix form
as
Y
u
= H
u
X
u
= H
u
F
u
x
u
(1)
978-1-4244-2515-0/09/$25.00 2009 IEEE
Y
R
= H
R
X
R
= H
R
F
R
x
R
(2)
where
x
R
=
_
x
T
0
, , x
T
u
, , x
T
U1

T
H
u
= diag [H
u
(0), H
u
(1), , H
u
(N
u
1)]
H
R
= diag [H
R
(0), H
R
(1), , H
R
(N
R
1)]
Here, F, x, and H denote the DFT spreading matrix, signal
vector before DFT spreading, and channel matrix, respectively.
Also, u, R, and U denote the uth MS, RS, and the number of
MSs, respectively. Noise terms are ignored in these equations.
Note that the DFT spreading sizes of RS and MSs, N
R
and
N
u
, are usually different.
In order to combine the signals transmitted from RS and
MSs, the signals transmitted from MSs are rewritten as
Y
M
= H
M
F
M
x
R
(3)
where
Y
M
=
_
Y
T
0
, , Y
T
u
, , Y
T
U1

T
H
M
= diag [H
0
, H
1
, , H
U1
]
F
M
= diag [F
0
, F
1
, , F
U1
]
By using the MRC technique, Y
M
and Y
R
can be com-
bined as
_
H
H
M
Y
M
+H
H
R
Y
R
_
=
_
H
H
M
H
M
F
M
+H
H
R
H
R
F
R
_
x
R
(4)
Since the term, H
H
M
H
M
F
M
+ H
H
R
H
R
F
R
, in (4) is not
a diagonal matrix, the conventional MRC technique cannot
be applied to SC-FDMA-based cooperative relays when DFT
spreading sizes for RS and MSs are different. The ML solution
for the combined signal in (4) can be given by
x
R
= argmin
xR
_
_
_
_
_
H
H
M
Y
M
+H
H
R
Y
R
_

_
H
H
M
H
M
F
M
+H
H
R
H
R
F
R
_
x
R
_
_
_
_
2
(5)
Note that the ML solution for detection of x
R
requires
a high computational complexity. When the ZF or MMSE
detection techniques are used to lower the computational
complexity, the complexity for obtaining the inverse matrix
of H
H
M
H
M
F
M
+ H
H
R
H
R
F
R
becomes higher as the DFT
spreading size increases. Also, the performance of ZF or
MMSE detection technique can be degraded signicantly if
H
H
M
H
M
F
M
+H
H
R
H
R
F
R
is not a non-singular matrix.
III. A SIMPLIFIED MRC
By multiplying complex conjugate matrices of channel, H
u
and H
R
, on both sides of (1) and (2) and taking IDFT, the
received signal at the BS can be rewritten as
F
1
u
H
H
u
Y
u
= F
1
u
H
u

2
F
u
x
u
(6)
F
1
R
H
H
R
Y
R
= F
1
R
H
R

2
F
R
x
R
(7)
where
F
1
u
H
H
u
Y
u
= [r
u
(0), r
u
(1), , r
u
(N
u
1)]
T
F
1
R
H
H
R
Y
R
= [r
R
(0), r
R
(1), , r
R
(N
R
1)]
T
and
r
u
(l
u
) =
1
N
u
Nu1

mu=0
|H
u
(m
u
)|
2
X
u
(m
u
)e
j2mulu
Nu
r
R
(l
R
) =
1
N
R
NR1

mR=0
|H
R
(m
R
)|
2
X
R
(m
R
)e
j2m
R
l
R
N
R
Right-hand sides of (6) and (7) can be rewritten as
F
1
u
H
u

2
F
u
x
u
=

x
u
(0) x
u
(N
u
1) x
u
(1)
x
u
(1) x
u
(0) x
u
(2)
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
x
u
(N
u
1) x
u
(N
u
2) x
u
(0)

g
u
(0)
g
u
(1)
.
.
.
g
u
(N
u
1)

(8)
F
1
R
H
R

2
F
R
x
R
=

x
R
(0) x
R
(N
R
1) x
R
(1)
x
R
(1) x
R
(0) x
R
(2)
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
x
R
(N
R
1) x
R
(N
R
2) x
R
(0)

g
R
(0)
g
R
(1)
.
.
.
g
R
(N
R
1)

(9)
where
g
u
(l
u
) =
1
N
u
Nu1

mu=0
|H
u
(m
u
)|
2
e
j2mulu
Nu
g
R
(l
R
) =
1
N
R
NR1

mR=0
|H
R
(m
R
)|
2
e
j2m
R
l
R
N
R
(8) and (9) can be expressed by the cyclic convolution as
follows:
x
u
(l
u
)
Lu1

1=0
g
u
(
1
) =
_
Lu1

1=0
r
u
(l
u
+
1
)
_

Lu1

2=1

_
x
u
(mod(l
u

2
, N
u
))
Lu1

1=2
g
u
(
1
)
_
+
_
x
u
(mod(l
u
+
2
, N
u
))
Lu21

1=0
g
u
(
1
)
_

(10)
x
R
(l
R
)
LR1

1=0
g
R
(
1
) =
_
LR1

1=0
r
R
(l
R
+
1
)
_

LR1

2=1

_
x
R
(mod(l
R

2
, N
R
))
LR1

1=2
g
R
(
1
)
_
+
_
x
R
(mod(l
R
+
2
, N
R
))
LR21

1=0
g
R
(
1
)
_

(11)
where mod(a, b) and L denote the remainder of division of
a by b and the length of channel, respectively. Substituting
initial estimates obtained by SC-FDMA detector, x
u
(l
u
) and
x
R
(l
R
), into (10) and (11), and then adding (10) and (11), we
can obtain (12). S
u
in (12) denotes the set of indices allocated
to the u-th MS before DFT spreading at RS. If the channel in
x
u
(l
u
) =
1
Lu1

1=0
g
u
(
1
) +
LR1

1=0
g
R
(
1
)

_
Lu1

1=0
r
u
(l
u
+
1
)
_
+
_
LR1

1=0
r
R
(l
R
+
1
)
_

Lu1

2=1
__
x
u
(mod(l
u

2
, N
u
))
Lu1

1=2
g
u
(
1
)
_
+
_
x
u
(mod(l
u
+
2
, N
u
))
Lu21

1=0
g
u
(
1
)
__

LR1

2=1
__
x
R
(mod(l
R

2
, N
R
))
LR1

1=2
g
R
(
1
)
_
+
_
x
R
(mod(l
R
+
2
, N
R
))
LR21

1=0
g
R
(
1
)
__

, (12)
for 0 l
u
< N
u
, l
R
S
u
Fig. 2. A block diagram of an IR-MRC
a resource block (RB) allocated to a user can be assumed to
be frequency non-selective, (12) is given by
x
u
(l
u
) =
g
u
(0) x
u
(l
u
) + g
R
(0) x
R
(l
R
)
g
u
(0) + g
R
(0)
,
for 0 l
u
< N
u
, l
R
S
u
(13)
IV. AN INTERFERENCE REJECTION-MRC
Fig. 2 shows a block diagram of the proposed IR-MRC
technique consisting of SC-FDMA signal detection, ordering,
rejection, adjustment, combining, and slicing. If the average
power of the signal vector received from the th MS, , is
the lowest, the process of interference cancellation can be
expressed in the frequency domain as

Y
R
= Y
R
H
R
F
R
J
u
= H
R
F
R
_
0
1Np
x
T
u
0
1Nn

T
(14)
where
J
u
=
_
x
T
0
x
T
u1
0
1N u
x
T
u+1
x
T
U1

T
N
p
=
u1

u=0
N
u
N
n
=
U1

u= u+1
N
u
After interference cancellation, the process of adjustment in
spreading size of the signal, , can be expressed as

Y = S

I +
NR/N u1

i=1
W
(iN u)

W
(Np)

Y
R
(15)
where
W
(a)
= diag
_
0, , e
j2mRa/NR
, e
j2(NR1)a/NR
_
Fig. 3. A concept of spreading size adjustment in IR-MRC

Y
R
, W
(a)
, and I denote the N
u
1 vector after adjustment of
spreading size, phase-rotational matrix, and N
R
N
R
identity
matrix, respectively. Here, S is dened by
S = diag [, , , ]
. .
N u
(16)
where
=
_
1 0
1(NR/N u1)

The sizes of matrices, S and , are given by N

u
N
R
and
1 N
R
/N
u
, respectively.
Fig. 3 shows the concept of spreading size adjustment in
the proposed IR-MRC. As shown in Fig. 3(a), the time-
domain signal of

Y
R
after (14) resides at the position of
the resource allocated to the uth MS in the signal vector
transmitted from RS. As shown in Fig. 3(b), the process of
multiplying W
(a)
by

Y
R
corresponds to shifting the time-
domain signal of W
(a)

Y
R
to the starting point of the signal
vector transmitted from RS. Fig. 3(c) shows the process of
constructing a repetitive pattern of W
(a)

Y
R
in the time-
domain. Note that the time-domain signal with a repetitive
pattern with a period of N
R
/N
u
corresponds to comb pattern
with a spacing of N
R
/N
u
in the frequency-domain. Then, we
obtain the vector of

Y with a size of N
u
1 in (16), by
multiplying S by the vector with the repetitive pattern as can
be seen from Fig. 3(d).
In a similar way, the channel matrix can be expressed as

H = S

I +
NR/N u1

i=1
W
(iN u)

W
(Np)
H
R
(17)
Finally, the receive diversity combining for IR-MRC is
given by
x
u
= F
1
u
_

H
H

H +H
H
u
H
u
_
1
_

H
H

Y +H
H
u
Y
u
_
(18)
Since the matrix,

H
H

H +H
H
u
H
u
, in (18) is diagonal,
a simple scalar operation can be used for receive diversity
combining in IR-MRC. The processes from (14) to (18) are
repeated to detect the other transmitted signals. Constraints for
IR-MRC are given as follows:
N
R
=
U1

u=0
N
u
(19)
mod(N
R
, N
u
) = 0 (20)
V. SIMULATION
In this section, performances of the proposed receive diver-
sity combining techniques for SC-FDMA-based cooperative
relays are evaluated. Parameters for simulation are summarized
in Table I. It is assumed that the detected signals at RS are
error-free.
Fig. 4 shows BER performances of receive diversity com-
bining techniques for SC-FDMA-based cooperative relays.
From this gure, we can see that BER performance of the
conventional MRC technique with ZF detector, denoted by
the square, is worse than that of SISO case (solid line)
because H
H
M
H
M
F
M
+ H
H
R
H
R
F
R
, in (4) becomes near-
singular matrix. We can also see that the proposed S-MRC
technique, denoted by the circle, and the IR-MRC technique,
denoted by the triangle, achieve E
b
/N
0
gains of 8dB and
7dB, both at the BER of 10-3, compared with the SISO case,
TABLE I
PARAMETERS FOR THE SIMULATION
RS MS
DFT Spreading Size 48 24
Number of Stations 1 2
Modulation 16QAM
Bandwidth 0.625MHz
Carrier Frequency 2.3GHz
Cyclic Prex 12.8us
FFT Size 64
Channel Model ITU-PedB
5 10 15 20 25 30
10
5
10
4
10
3
10
2
10
1
ITUPedB, speed=3km/h, 16QAM
E
b
/N
0
u
n
c
o
d
e
d

B
E
R


SISO
MRC ZF
SMRC
IRMRC
IRMRC (slc)
IRMRC using SMRC (slc)
Fig. 4. BER performances of receive diversity combining techniques for
SC-FDMA-based cooperative relays
respectively. The S-MRC technique performs slightly better
than the IR-MRC technique at low E
b
/N
0
. However, the IR-
MRC technique performs better than the S-MRC technique at
high E
b
/N
0
(above 21dB). Also, the IR-MRC technique using
the output of S-MRC as initial estimates performs the best
among receive diversity combining techniques at the region
above 18dB. Here, (slc) corresponds to the case where initial
estimates obtained by the signal detector are sliced.
VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper, we proposed two receive diversity combining
techniques for SC-FDMA-based cooperative relay systems
when DFT spreading sizes for MS and RS are different. It was
shown that the S-MRC technique performing diversity com-
bining in the time-domain is effective in obtaining diversity
gain at low E
b
/N
0
region. It was also shown that the IR-MRC
technique performing diversity combining in the frequency-
domain by adjusting DFT spreading size performs better at
high E
b
/N
0
region.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This research is supported by Samsung Electronics, and
UCN Project, Knowledge and Economy Frontier R&D Pro-
gram of MKE in Korea as a result of UCNs subproject 09C1-
C2-11T.
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