Multi-user MIMO MMSE non-regenerative relaying using local channel state information

In this article, we investigate a two-hop relaying communication where all nodes are equipped with antenna arrays. We derive the multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) processing matrices using the mean-squared-error cost function and assuming that each node uses only locally available channel state information estimates. Spatial processing at the base station and at the user terminals is same as in the case of a direct communication. The emphasis is on the design of the MIMO precoding matrix at the relay as it has to process the noise and the interference on the first and on the second hop at the same time. The resulting system performance is close to the performance of the system that jointly optimizes matrices at the source and at the relay. The proposed solution requires significantly less computational power and feedback overhead than the solutions proposed in the literature.