Achievable Degrees of Freedom of Relay-Aided MIMO Cellular Networks Using Opposite Directional Interference Alignment

In this paper, we propose an interference alignment (IA) scheme for the multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) uplink cellular network with the help of a relay which operates in half-duplex mode. The proposed scheme only requires global channel state information (CSI) knowledge at the relay, with no transmitter beamforming and time extension at the user equipment (UE), which differs from conventional IA schemes for cellular networks. We derive the feasibility condition of the proposed scheme for the general cellular network configuration and analyze the degrees-of-freedom (DoF) performance of the proposed IA scheme while providing a closed-form beamformer design at the relay. Extensions of the proposed scheme to downlink and full-duplex cellular networks are also proposed in this paper. The DoF performance of the proposed scheme is compared to those of linear IA scheme and relay-aided interference management scheme for a cellular network with no time extension. It is also shown that advantages similar to those in the uplink case can be obtained for the downlink case through the duality of a relay-aided interfering multiple-access channel (IMAC) and an interfering broadcast channel (IBC). Furthermore, the proposed scheme for a full-duplex cellular network is shown to have advantages identical to those of a number of proposed half-duplex cellular cases.