An analysis on relay assisted millimeter wave networks

The potential benefits of deploying relays in outdoor millimeter-wave (mmWave) networks are investigated. We derive the coverage probability from sources to a typical destination for such systems aided by relays. The sources and the relays are modeled as independent homogeneous Poisson point processes. We present a relay modeling technique for mmWave networks considering blockages and compute the density of active relays that aid the transmission. Closed form expressions for end-to-end signal to noise ratio for two relay selection techniques, namely best path selection and best relay selection are derived. Finally, we analyze the coverage probability and transmission capacity of the network and validate them with simulation results. Our results show that the coverage probability and transmission capacity of mmWave systems, which are often affected by extensive blockages can be increased considerably with the aid of relays.