CN101785213B - The method and apparatus of plurality of relay stations in wireless communication network combined relaying - Google Patents

Abstract

A kind of new combined relaying scheme is provided. N road signal in the signal of common M road is weighted processing by the multiple relay stations participating in combined relaying, generates the signal to be sent of the not weighted process of signal to be sent and M-N road of the weighted process in N road, combines and send to next-hop device. Accordingly, this technical scheme is different from the mode of simple open loop of the prior art or closed loop, it is achieved that the combination of the two. With compared with the open loop approach of ADSTC, this technical scheme is obtained in that array gain, and systematic function will more preferably; And compared with the closed-loop fashion that precoding in a distributed manner is example, the expense that control signaling is brought is less, and the determination process of Base-Band Processing process and weight coefficient is more simple.

Description

Method and device for multi-relay station joint relay in wireless communication network

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a wireless relay network, and in particular, to a method and an apparatus for transmitting a signal to a next hop device by combining multiple relay stations in a wireless relay network.

Background

In a wireless communication network, the introduction of a relay station helps to extend the coverage area of a cell and to improve the data throughput rate of the cell. With the development of relay technology, a joint relay scheme, so-called joint relay, is presented, that is, a plurality of relay stations jointly transmit signals to a next-hop device. By using the joint relay technology, gains such as spatial multiplexing and spatial diversity can be realized by a plurality of transmitting antennas distributed on a plurality of relay stations. Due to the above advantages, the joint relay plays a significant role in the relay network.

In the prior art, there are two schemes for implementing multi-relay station joint relay, which are respectively called an open-loop mode and a closed-loop mode.

The open loop scheme is most typically Adaptive Distributed Space Time Coding (ADSTC) as shown in fig. 1a, where two relay stations are each equipped with one transmit antenna. Taking uplink signal transmission as an example, after receiving a signal sent by a previous-hop device (e.g., mobile terminal a), the relay station B, C uses Alamoti coding method, and the relay station B, C respectively modulates the modulation symbol sequences { X }₁，X₂，X₃.. } and sends a signal to the next hop device (e.g., base station D) in units of every two symbols and every two time slots by:

in the first time slot, X is sent out by the relay station B₁The relay station C sends out X₂；

In the second time slot, the relay station B sends out-X₂ ^*The relay station C sends out X₁ ^*；

In the third time slot, X is sent out by the relay station B₃The relay station C sends out X₄；

In the fourth time slot, the relay station B sends out-X₄ ^*The relay station C sends out X₃ ^*(ii) a And so on.

It can be seen that, based on ADSTC, the relay station B, C forms a distributed space-time coding system, and can obtain spatial diversity gain. However, the signals transmitted by the relay stations do not use any channel information, and thus, array gain (arraygain) cannot be obtained, and there is room for further improvement in system performance. In addition, because the coding matrix adopted by the ADSTC is an Alamouti matrix of 2 × 2, the method is only suitable for the case that two relay stations perform joint relay and each relay station has only one transmitting antenna. In other words, if there are more than two relay stations participating in the joint relay, the extra relay stations will be idle; if the total number of transmitting antennas configured by each relay station participating in the joint relay is greater than 2, the extra antennas will be idle.

Distributed precoding (distributed precoding) as most typically shown in fig. 1b in a closed-loop manner, where two relay stations are each equipped with one transmit antenna. Still taking the uplink signal transmission as an example, the relay stations B 'and C' use a 2X2 precoding matrix pair X after receiving the signal from the previous-hop device, such as the mobile terminal a₁，X₂And carrying out precoding. The generation of the precoding matrix depends on the channel related information (e.g., the channel response between each relay station and the base station D'), and the calculation of the matrix is usually performed by the base station, and then the corresponding precoding coefficient is notified to the corresponding relay station.

The closed-loop approach, exemplified by distributed precoding, has the following drawbacks:

since at least the corresponding precoding coefficients in the precoding matrix need to be transmitted between the base station and the relay station, more control signaling overhead is caused on the channel;

the relay station needs to perform more complex baseband processing and correspondingly increases the processing complexity at the receiving end.

It can be seen that a more optimized joint relay scheme is needed to solve the above-mentioned problems in the prior art.

Disclosure of Invention

In order to solve the problems that the performance of an open-loop mode needs to be improved, the signaling overhead of a closed-loop mode needs to be reduced and the like in the prior art, the invention provides a novel joint relay scheme, wherein a plurality of relay stations participating in joint relay perform weighting processing on N paths of signals to be transmitted in M paths of signals to be transmitted, generate N paths of signals to be transmitted after being subjected to weighting processing and M-N paths of signals to be transmitted without being subjected to weighting processing, and then jointly transmit the signals to next hop equipment. Therefore, the invention is different from the simple open-loop or closed-loop mode in the prior art, and realizes the combination of the two modes.

Preferably, the weighting factors (coefficients) used in the weighting process are associated with channel-related information between the relay stations and the next-hop device, so as to improve the quality of the received signal at the next-hop device.

To achieve the above technical object, according to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for transmitting a signal to a next hop device in conjunction with other relay stations in a multi-antenna relay station of a wireless relay network, comprising: weighting one or more paths of signals to be weighted in the multiple paths of signals by using a weighting coefficient to generate one or more paths of signals to be weighted and to be sent; and sending the one or more paths of signals to be sent after weighted processing and the rest paths of signals to be sent without weighted processing to the next hop equipment.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method in a single-antenna relay station of a wireless relay network for transmitting a signal to a next-hop device in conjunction with other relay stations, comprising the steps of: weighting the signal to be weighted by using a weighting coefficient to generate a channel of signal to be transmitted which is subjected to weighting processing, wherein the weighting coefficient is used for realizing the maximization of the quality of the received signal at the next hop equipment; and sending the weighted signal to be sent to the next-hop equipment.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method in a base station of a wireless relay network for controlling a plurality of relay stations to jointly transmit a signal to a next-hop device, wherein the method comprises the following steps: providing weighting coefficient related information for one or more relay stations in the plurality of relay stations, wherein the weighting coefficient related information is used for weighting the signals to be weighted by the one or more relay stations.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a first joint transmission apparatus for transmitting a signal to a next hop device in combination with other relay stations in a multi-antenna relay station of a wireless relay network, comprising: the first weighting device is used for weighting one or more paths of signals to be weighted in the multiple paths of signals by using the weighting coefficient so as to generate one or more paths of signals to be sent after weighting; and the first signal sending device is used for sending the one or more paths of signals to be sent after weighting processing and the rest of the paths of signals to be sent without weighting processing to the next hop equipment.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a second joint transmission apparatus in a single-antenna relay station of a wireless relay network for transmitting a signal to a next-hop device in conjunction with other relay stations, comprising: a second weighting device, configured to weight a signal to be weighted by using a weighting coefficient to generate a channel of signal to be sent after weighting, where the weighting coefficient is used to maximize quality of a received signal at the next hop device; and the second signal sending device is used for sending the weighted signal to be sent to the next hop equipment.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a control device in a base station of a wireless relay network, for controlling a plurality of relay stations to jointly transmit a signal to a next-hop device, comprising means for providing weighting coefficient related information for one or more relay stations in the plurality of relay stations, wherein the weighting coefficient related information is used for weighting a signal to be weighted by the one or more relay stations.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for a multi-relay station joint to transmit a signal to a next-hop device in a wireless relay network, comprising the steps of: one or more relay stations in the plurality of relay stations perform weighting processing on N paths of signals to be weighted in M paths of signals to generate N paths of signals to be transmitted which are subjected to weighting processing and M-N paths of signals to be transmitted which are not subjected to weighting processing, wherein M is a positive integer larger than 1, and N is a positive integer larger than zero and smaller than M; and the plurality of relay stations transmit the N paths of signals to be transmitted which are subjected to weighting processing and the M-N paths of signals to be transmitted which are not subjected to weighting processing to the next hop equipment.

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for detecting received signals jointly transmitted by multiple relay stations in a network device of a wireless relay network, the method comprising the steps of: generating equivalent channel related information for signals sent by each group of matched antennas based on channel related information between the network equipment and each group of matched antennas of the plurality of relay stations and weighting coefficients used by the corresponding relay stations for weighting signals to be weighted; and detecting the received signals jointly transmitted by the plurality of relay stations by using the generated equivalent channel related information.

According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a signal detection apparatus for detecting a received signal jointly transmitted by multiple relay stations in a network device of a wireless relay network, the apparatus comprising: an equivalent generating device, configured to generate equivalent channel related information for signals sent by each group of matched antennas based on channel related information between the network device and each group of matched antennas of the multiple relay stations and a weighting coefficient used by a corresponding relay station to weight a signal to be weighted; and a detecting device, configured to detect the received signals jointly transmitted by the plurality of relay stations by using the generated equivalent channel related information.

Compared with the prior art, the technical scheme provided by the invention has obvious advantages, and is embodied as follows:

1. compared with an open loop mode taking ADSTC as an example, the method can enable the combined relay system to obtain array gain, so that the method is better in Bit Error Rate (BER) and Packet Error Rate (PER); moreover, the scheme is suitable for the situation that any plurality of relay stations participate in the joint relay, and each relay station can be configured with any plurality of transmitting antennas.

2. Compared with a closed-loop mode taking distributed precoding as an example, the overhead brought by control signaling is smaller; in addition, the baseband processing process and the determination process of the weighting coefficient become simpler, thereby being beneficial to reducing the processing complexity of the relay station, the base station and the terminal.

Drawings

Other features, objects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of non-limiting embodiments thereof, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 1a shows a schematic diagram of a joint relay network based on an open-loop manner in the prior art;

fig. 1b shows a schematic diagram of a joint relay network based on a closed-loop manner in the prior art;

fig. 2 is a flow chart of a system method for implementing multi-relay joint signal transmission to a next-hop device in a wireless communication network according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a joint relay network according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which two relay stations jointly transmit signals to a next-hop device, and each of the two relay stations has a transmitting antenna;

fig. 4a-4b are schematic diagrams of a joint relay network according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which two relay stations jointly transmit signals to a next-hop device, and one relay station is provided with two transmitting antennas, and the other relay station is provided with only one transmitting antenna;

fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of a joint relay network according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which two relay stations jointly transmit signals to a next-hop device, and each of the two relay stations has two transmitting antennas;

fig. 6a-6d are schematic diagrams of a joint relay network according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which three relay stations jointly transmit signals to a next-hop device.

Fig. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a method for transmitting a signal to a next hop device in conjunction with other relay stations in a multi-antenna relay station of a wireless relay network according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 8 shows a flowchart of a method for transmitting a signal to a next hop device in conjunction with other relay stations in a single antenna relay station of a wireless relay network according to one embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a method for controlling a plurality of relay stations to jointly transmit a signal to a next hop device in a base station of a wireless relay network according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 10 is a block diagram illustrating a first joint transmission apparatus for transmitting a signal to a next hop device in conjunction with other relay stations in a multi-antenna relay station of a wireless relay network according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 11 shows a block diagram of a second joint transmission apparatus for transmitting a signal to a next hop device in conjunction with other relay stations in a single antenna relay station of a wireless relay network according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 12 is a block diagram of a control apparatus in a base station of a wireless relay network for controlling a plurality of relay stations to jointly transmit a signal to a next-hop device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 13 shows a flowchart of a method for detecting received signals jointly transmitted by multiple relay stations in a network device of a wireless relay network according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 14 shows a block diagram of a signal detection apparatus for detecting received signals jointly transmitted by multiple relay stations in a network device of a wireless relay network according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Wherein the same or similar reference numerals denote the same or similar devices (modules) or steps.

Detailed Description

In the following, the transmission of uplink signals is described as an example without loss of generality, and those skilled in the art can apply the present invention to downlink signal transmission without inventive effort according to the description of uplink signal transmission in this document.

Fig. 2 is a flowchart of a system method for implementing multi-relay joint signal transmission to a next-hop device in a wireless communication network according to an embodiment of the present invention. The invention is described below with reference to fig. 2 in conjunction with fig. 3-5 d, respectively.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a joint relay network according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which two relay stations 1 and 2 jointly transmit signals to a next-hop device, that is, a base station 0, and both relay stations are equipped with only one transmitting antenna, and meanwhile, it is assumed that the base station 0 is equipped with N_rRoot receiving antenna, wherein N_rIs a positive integer greater than or equal to 1.

In this example, in step S1, the base station 0 provides the weighting coefficient b to the relay station 2 that needs to perform weighting processing on the signal. Preferably, b is generated based on the following criteria: maximizing the received signal quality at base station 0 is achieved. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the received signal quality may be characterized by one or more of the following items of information: received signal power (e.g., RSSI or received signal strength indicator information); a ratio of received signal power to noise power (SNR); a ratio of received signal power to interference signal power (SIR); a ratio of received signal power to the sum of noise power and interference signal power (SINR).

To achieve the above object, the weighting coefficient b may be generated based on the following equation (1)

$b=\left\{\begin{array}{cc}1,& \mathrm{Re}\left\{\underset{i=1}{\overset{N_r}{\mathrm{\&Sigma;}}}{h}_{i,\mathrm{RS}1}^{*}{h}_{i,\mathrm{RS}2}\right\}\&GreaterEqual;0\\ -1,& \mathrm{Re}\left\{\underset{i=1}{\overset{N_r}{\mathrm{\&Sigma;}}}{h}_{i,\mathrm{RS}1}^{*}{h}_{i,\mathrm{RS}2}\right\}<0\end{array}\right.$ i＝1，…，N_r(1)

Wherein h is_i，RS1And h_i，RS2Respectively, channel related information (e.g., channel fading coefficients) between the transmitting antennas of the relay station 1 and the relay station 2 and the ith receiving antenna of the base station 0 is represented, "Re" represents a real part of a complex number, and "x" represents a conjugate operator. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that formula (1) is merely exemplary to provide a way to determine b, and the scope of the present invention is not limited by formula (1).

In step S2, the mobile terminal a transmits a signal to each relay station. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that there is no strict temporal order between steps 1 and 2, and that the representation in fig. 2 is merely for convenience.

Thereafter, in step S3, each relay station demodulates transmission symbol { X ] from the received signal₁，X₂... (e.g., 16QAM modulation symbols), the signal is then forwarded to base station 0 in step S4 by:

in the first time slot, the repeater 1 sends out X on its transmitting antenna₁The repeater station 2 sends out bX on its transmitting antenna₁；

In the second time slot, the repeater 1 sends out X on its transmitting antenna₂The repeater station 2 sends out bX on its transmitting antenna₂。

Among the M (the value in this example is 2) channels of signals to be transmitted at each relay station, N (the value in this example is 1) channels of signals to be transmitted are transmitted to the base station 0 after being weighted.

In this context, mainly space-time coding is taken as an example for illustration, and those skilled in the art can easily extend the present invention to the case of space-frequency coding based on the teaching of the present application without inventive effort, by only replacing the above "first time slot" with "first subcarrier" and replacing the "second time slot" with "second subcarrier" accordingly.

Thus, the signal received at base station 0 may be shown in the form of equation (2) below:

y_i＝h_i，RS1x_k+bh_i，RS2x_k+n_ii＝1，…，N_r；k＝1，2，…(2)

wherein n is_iRepresenting additive noise.

Thus, the transmitting antennas of the relay station 1 and the relay station 2 form a group coherent code. The meaning of group coherent coding as referred to herein is: corresponding symbols (one of which may be weighted) are transmitted on the same slot/same subcarrier for different antennas.

The advantages of the present invention will become clear upon reading the following description, where equation (3) shows the decision signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in the example of FIG. 3_Decision)：

i＝1，…，N_r(3)

Wherein G is_{diversitygain}Indicating the diversity gain, accordingly, G_arraygainThe array gain is indicated.

Decision signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of ADSTC scheme in fig. 1_{Decision_of_ADSTC}) As shown in the following formula (4):

i＝1，…，N_r(4)

compared with the existing joint relay based on an open loop mode, the method has the advantages that the array gain is obtained additionally, and the system performance is better.

In addition, it can be seen that, in this example, the signaling overhead generated by the weighting coefficient transmitted between the base station 0 and each relay station is only 1 bit, which is smaller than 4Q bits in the distributed precoding scheme shown in fig. 1b, where Q represents the feedback amount of each precoding coefficient, which saves the wireless resources between the base station and the relay station.

In this way, the signal-to-noise ratio of the received signal is maximized at base station 0, after which the received signal can be detected in the receiver at base station 0 according to Maximum Ratio Combining (MRC).

Herein, a group of antennas that form a group coherent encoding with each other is collectively referred to as a matched antenna.

When the matched antennas are located at different relay stations (as in the case shown in fig. 3), if the relay stations 1 and 2 transmit the same pilot signal to the base station 0 on the matched antennas, the channel response obtained by the receiver through channel estimation is actually a linear combination (the coefficient depends on the weighting coefficient b) of the channel responses between the physical receiving antenna and the transmitting antenna, in this case, the receiver in the prior art can achieve the support of the present invention.

If these relay stations transmit different pilot signals to the base station 0 on the matched antenna, the receiver needs to be improved according to the present invention, specifically, the receiver improved at the base station 0 is firstly based on the pilot signals P respectively transmitted by the relay stations 1 and 2₂、P₃And then, the receiver combines the weighting coefficient b used by the relay station 2 and the two channel response values to calculate equivalent channel response according to linear weighting for subsequent signal detection.

In the above example, the base station 0 directly notifies the relay station 2 of the weighting coefficient b for weighting. In a variation of the above example, the generation process of the weighting coefficient b is performed at the relay station 2, specifically, in step 1, the base station 0 notifies the relay station 2 of the collected channel-related information between each receiving antenna and each transmitting antenna of each relay station, and the relay station 2 generates the weighting coefficient b as shown in the above equation (1).

In another variation of the above example, assuming that the channel between each relay station and the base station 0 is a symmetric channel, in this case, the channel estimation that should be performed by the receiving side (base station 0) can also be performed by each relay station, and each relay station will obtain the channel related information between itself and the base station 0, and then each relay station will collect the channel related information to the relay station 2, and the relay station 2 will then generate the weighting coefficient b according to equation (1).

Hereinafter, other application scenarios of the above two variations will not be described in detail, but only a case where the base station directly provides the weighting coefficients for the relay station that needs to perform precoding will be described. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that this does not have any substantial effect on the solution of the invention.

Hereinafter, a relay station operating in an open-loop manner, such as the relay station 1 in fig. 3, is referred to as an open-loop relay station, a relay station operating in a closed-loop manner, such as the relay station 2 in fig. 3, is referred to as a closed-loop relay station, and a multi-antenna relay station transmitting a weighted signal on a part of antennas and transmitting an unweighted signal on the remaining antennas is referred to as a composite relay station.

Fig. 4a is a schematic diagram of a joint relay network according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which the relay stations 3 and 4 jointly transmit signals to a next-hop device, and the relay station 3 is equipped with one transmitting antenna, and the relay station 4 is equipped with two transmitting antennas. It can be seen that the relay station 3 is an open-loop relay station, and the relay station 4 is a composite relay station.

Referring to fig. 4a in conjunction with fig. 2, in step 1, the base station 0 provides the relay station 4 with a weighting coefficient b for weighting a signal to be transmitted on one transmit antenna of the relay station 4 (referred to as TX-4_1, hereinafter, the nth transmit antenna of the relay station m is represented in the form of TX-m _ n)₁。

After receiving the uplink signal sent by the mobile terminal a in step 2,in step 3, the relay stations 3 and 4 demodulate the received signals to obtain modulation symbols { X }₁，X₂.., then, the relay station 4 performs (spatial) coding on the signal to be (spatial) coded obtained after demodulation to obtain two paths of signals to be sent, namely { X }₁，X₂And { X }₂ ^*，-X₁ ^*Is further weighted by a weighting coefficient b₁For the signal sequence X to be transmitted on TX-4_1₁，X₂Weighting to obtain a signal sequence to be sent { b } after weighting₁X₁，b₁X₂}。

In step 4, the relay stations 3 and 4 transmit signals to be transmitted to the base station 0 by:

in the first time slot, the relay station 3 transmits X₁The relay station 4 transmits b on TX-4_1₁X₁And transmits X on TX-4_2₂ ^*；

In the second time slot, the relay station 3 transmits X₂The relay station 4 transmits b on TX-4_1₁X₂And transmits-X on TX-4_2₁ ^*。

It can be seen that in the embodiment shown in fig. 4a, distributed space-time coding is configured between the transmitting antenna of the relay station 3 and TX-4_2 of the relay station 4, so that coding gain can be obtained, and in addition, group coherent coding is configured between the transmitting antenna of the relay station 3 and TX-4_1 of the relay station 4, so that array gain can be obtained.

Weighting factor b in the embodiment shown in fig. 4a₁Depending on the channel-related information between the matched antennas (the transmitting antenna of the relay station 3 and the TX-4_1 of the relay station 4) and the receiving antennas of the base station 0, if the received signal quality of the receiving end is maximized, the formula (5) similar to the formula (1) can still be used to determine b₁Namely:

$b_1=\left\{\begin{array}{cc}1,& \mathrm{Re}\left\{\underset{i=1}{\overset{N_r}{\mathrm{\&Sigma;}}}{h}_{i,\mathrm{RS}3}^{*}{h}_{i,\mathrm{RS}4}\right\}\&GreaterEqual;0\\ -1,& \mathrm{Re}\left\{\underset{i=1}{\overset{N_r}{\mathrm{\&Sigma;}}}{h}_{i,\mathrm{RS}3}^{*}{h}_{i,\mathrm{RS}4}\right\}<0\end{array}\right.,$ i＝1，…，N_r(5)

wherein h is_i，RS3And h_i，RS4The channel related information between the transmitting antenna of the relay station 3 and the i-th receiving antenna of the base station 0 and the channel related information between TX-4_1 of the relay station 4 and the i-th receiving antenna of the base station 0 are respectively indicated.

In this case, the weighting factor between base station 0 and the relay station still involves 1 bit of signaling overhead.

Fig. 4b shows a schematic diagram of a joint relay network according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which the relay stations 5 and 6 jointly transmit signals to the base station 0, and the relay station 5 is equipped with two transmitting antennas, and the relay station 6 is equipped with only one transmitting antenna.

Space-time coding is formed between two transmitting antennas TX-5_1 and TX-5_2 of the relay station 5, and group coherent coding is formed between the transmitting antennas TX-5_1 and the relay station 6. Coefficient b for weighting by the relay station 6₂Is generated based on the channel related information between the transmitting antenna of the relay station 6 and each receiving antenna of the base station 0 and the channel related information between TX-5_1 and each receiving antenna of the base station 0, as shown in equation (6):

$b_2=\left\{\begin{array}{cc}1,& \mathrm{Re}\left\{\underset{i=1}{\overset{N_r}{\mathrm{\&Sigma;}}}{h}_{i,\mathrm{RS}5}^{*}{h}_{i,\mathrm{RS}6}\right\}\&GreaterEqual;0\\ -1,& \mathrm{Re}\left\{\underset{i=1}{\overset{N_r}{\mathrm{\&Sigma;}}}{h}_{i,\mathrm{RS}5}^{*}{h}_{i,\mathrm{RS}6}\right\}<0\end{array}\right.---\left(6\right)$

wherein h is_i，RS5Indicating channel related information between TX-5_1 and the ith receiving antenna of base station 0, h_i，RS6Indicating channel-related information between the transmitting antenna of the relay station 6 and the i-th receiving antenna of the base station 0.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the embodiments of the present application are not exhaustive of the various application scenarios of the present invention, but those skilled in the art can apply the present invention without inventive step in the light of the teachings herein.

Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of a joint relay network according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which the relay stations 7 and 8 jointly transmit signals to the base station 0, and each of the two relay stations has two transmitting antennas. The relay station 7 is an open-loop relay station, and the relay station 8 is a closed-loop relay station.

At this time, between TX-7_1 and TX-8_1, and between TX-7_2 and TX-8_2, respectively, group coherent coding is constructed.

The signal received at base station 0 is shown in matrix form in equation (7):

$\left[\begin{array}{cc}{y}_i^{\left(1\right)}& y_i^{\left(2\right)}\end{array}\right]\left[\begin{array}{cccc}{h}_{i,\mathrm{RS}7-1}& h_{i,\mathrm{RS}7-2}& h_{i,\mathrm{RS}8-1}& h_{i,\mathrm{RS}8-2}\end{array}\right]\left[\begin{array}{cc}{x}_1& x_2\\ x_2^{*}& {-x}_1^{*}\\ b_1{x}_1& b_1{x}_2\\ b_2{x}_2^{*}& -b_2{x}_1^{*}\end{array}\right]+\left[\begin{array}{cc}{n}_i^{\left(1\right)}& n_i^{\left(2\right)}\end{array}\right]---\left(7\right)$

wherein,represents the signal received by the ith receiving antenna of the base station 0 in the k time slot, h_i，RS7-1Indicating the channel related information between the first transmit antenna of the relay station 7 and the ith receive antenna of the base station 0, and the same holds for the rest. Based on this, formula (7) is equivalent to formula (8):

$\left[\begin{array}{cc}{y}_i^{\left(1\right)}& y_i^{\left(2\right)}\end{array}\right]=\left[\begin{array}{cc}{h}_{i,\mathrm{RS}7-1}+b_3{h}_{i,\mathrm{RS}8-1}& h_{i,\mathrm{RS}7-2}+b_4{h}_{i,\mathrm{RS}8-2}\end{array}\right]\left[\begin{array}{cc}{x}_1& x_2\\ x_2^{*}& -x_1^{*}\end{array}\right]+\left[\begin{array}{cc}{n}_i^{\left(1\right)}& n_i^{\left(2\right)}\end{array}\right]---\left(8\right)$

in this example, the receiver at base station 0 may use an Alamouti decoder to recover modulation symbol X₁，X₂. The weighting factor b can be determined according to equation (9) again based on the principle that the signal-to-noise ratio of the received signal at base station 0 is maximal₃And b₄：

Wherein, when α is equal to 3, j is equal to 1, and when α is equal to 4, j is equal to 2

h_i，RS7-jRepresenting relay stations 7Channel related information between jth transmitting antenna and ith receiving antenna of base station 0, h_i，RS8-jIndicating channel related information between the jth transmit antenna of the relay station 8 and the ith receive antenna of the base station 0. In other words, in this example, b₃Is generated based on channel-related information between each of the matched antennas TX-7_1 and TX-8_1 and each receiving antenna of the base station 0, and b₄It is generated based on channel-related information between the matched antennas TX-7_2 and TX-8_2 and the respective receiving antennas of the base station 0.

In this example, the weighting coefficient transfer between the base station 0 and each relay station only occupies 2 bits, which is far superior to the simple closed-loop scheme in the prior art.

Those skilled in the art understand that fig. 5 only shows a joint relay scheme when two relay stations are both equipped with two transmitting antennas, and the protection scope of the present invention also covers multiple variations of the situation shown in fig. 5, for example, the relay station 7 also performs weighting processing on the signal to be transmitted on one transmitting antenna thereof, and so on. And will not be described in detail.

The present invention is also applicable to the case where more than two relay stations jointly transmit signals to the next-hop device, and is described below with reference to fig. 2 and fig. 6a to 6d, respectively.

In the case of fig. 6a, three relay stations I-III are each equipped with only one transmit antenna, where the transmit antennas of relay station I, II form distributed space-time coding and the transmit antennas of relay station I, III form group coherent coding. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art in light of the foregoing description, the weighting factor b₅Depends on the channel-related information between the respective receiving antennas between the respective transmitting antennas of the relay station I, III constituting the matched antenna and the base station 0, and the determination scheme thereof may be based on the idea of equation (5), i.e., b thereof₁Is replaced by b₅Then h is added_i，RS3Is replaced by h_i，RSIAnd h is_i，RS4Is replaced by h_i，RSII。

As a variation of the situation shown in FIG. 6a, in FIG. 6b, the relay stationI. II operates in the same manner as in fig. 6a, except that a group coherent code is formed between the relay station III' and the relay station II, and b is generated based on the idea of equation (5) based on the channel correlation information between the transmitting antennas of the relay stations II and III, which form the matched antenna, and the receiving antennas of the base station 0₆。

In fig. 6c, group coherent coding is formed between the transmit antennas of relay station I and relay station IV, wherein the weighting factor b used by relay station IV₇Is determined based on channel-related information between the transmit antennas of the relay station I, IV and the receive antennas of the base station 0. In addition, the matching result of the relay station I and the relay station IV further forms group coherent coding with the relay station V. b₈Is determined based on the idea of equation (5), i.e., b thereof₁Is replaced by b₈Then h is added_i，RS3Is replaced by h_i，RS-I+b₇·h_i，RS-IVAnd h is_i，RS4Is replaced by h_i，RS-V。

In the relay network shown in fig. 6d, the relay station VI is equipped with two transmitting antennas, which respectively form group coherent coding with the relay station I, II, and the weighting factor b₉、b₁₀Please refer to the above description, the principle of the method can be to respectively ensure that the signal quality maximization is achieved when the signals transmitted by the first transmitting antennas of the relay station I and the relay station VI and the signals transmitted by the second transmitting antennas of the relay station II and the relay station VI are received at the base station 0.

In combination with schemes such as antenna grouping, antenna selection, or cyclic delay diversity, the present invention can be generalized for a situation where one relay station includes three or more transmit antennas, and is not described herein again.

Hereinafter, a method for jointly transmitting a signal to a next hop device with other relay stations in a multi-antenna relay station according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to fig. 7 and fig. 4 a. Taking the relay station 4 in fig. 4a as an example, it is equipped with two transmit antennas TX-4_1 and TX-4_ 2.

In step S10, the relay station 4 obtains a weighting systemA number b₁. The step S10 has the following two specific implementation manners:

mode 1: the weighting coefficient b is obtained from the base station 0₁

In this case, the base station 0 is responsible for generating b based on the channel-related information of the channels between it and the relay stations 3, 4 (including the channel between its receiving antenna and the transmitting antenna of the relay station 3, and the channel between its receiving antenna and TX-4_1)₁And notifies the relay station 4.

Mode 2: the relay station 4 generates the weighting coefficient b by itself₁

In this case, step S10 is implemented by the following substeps (not shown in the figure):

s100: the relay station 4 is obtained by the base station 0 for generating b₁Information related to each channel;

s101: the relay station 4 generates b based on the obtained channel-related information₁。

Optionally, S10 may also be implemented by the following sub-steps, which are particularly applicable when the channel is a symmetric channel:

s100': the relay station 4 performs channel estimation to obtain channel related information between the TX-4_1 and the base station 0, and the relay station 3 performs channel estimation and directly informs the obtained channel related information between the relay station 3 and the base station 0 or indirectly informs the relay station 4 through the base station 0;

s101': the relay station 4 generates b based on the obtained channel-related information₁。

Upon receiving the uplink signal from mobile terminal a, relay station 4 demodulates the uplink signal to obtain a modulation symbol stream { X }₁，X₂，X₃，X₄,.. }, based on the previous configuration, in step S11, the relay station 4 space-time encodes the demodulated symbol stream by { X }₁，X₂For example, the relay station 4 will obtain two paths of space-time coded symbols { X }₁，X₂And { X }₂ ^*，-X₁ ^*}。

Those skilled in the art understand that when the channel between the relay station 4 and the base station 0 is a time-varying channel, the method preferably performs the step S10 periodically and updates the b1 timely, thereby ensuring a high signal quality at the receiving end. When the time variation of the channel is poor or even non-time-varying, the execution period of step S10 can be very long, even if the relay station 4 obtains b at one time₁Thereafter, step S10 is not executed again, i.e., before the channel condition changes for other reasons. It can be seen that step S10 is optional, and there is no strict time sequence between step S10 and step S11.

Thereafter, in step S12, the relay station 4 uses the weighting coefficient b obtained in step S10₁One path of signal to be transmitted on TX-4_1 is weighted to generate one path of weighted signal b₁X₁，b₁X₂}。

Next, in step S13, the relay station 4 transmits a signal to be transmitted to the base station 0 together with the relay station 3.

According to a specific embodiment of the present invention, a multi-antenna relay station does not spatially encode the signal to be processed, but transmits the signal in a spatially diverse or spatially multiplexed manner, wherein one or more signals are weighted before being transmitted.

Fig. 8 shows a flowchart of a method for transmitting a signal to a next-hop device in conjunction with other relay stations in a single-antenna relay station of a wireless relay network according to an embodiment of the present invention. A second aspect of the present invention will be described below with reference to fig. 8 and fig. 6a and 6 b. First, the single antenna relay station III in fig. 6a is taken as an example.

In step S20, the relay station III obtains the weighting coefficient b₅The specific way is the same as the way for obtaining the weighting coefficient by the multi-antenna relay station described above, that is, b generated by the base station 0 directly₅To the relay station III, tooThe base station 0 can provide the channel related information between the relay station I and the base station 0 and the channel related information between the relay station III and the base station 0 for the relay station III, and the relay station III can generate b₅. B is₅Is preferably based on a received signal quality maximization criterion of the receiving end (base station 0), said received signal quality comprising any or any of the following: receiving signal power; a ratio of received signal power to noise power; a ratio of received signal power to interference signal power; the ratio of the received signal power to the sum of the noise power and the interference signal power.

Thereafter, in step S21, the relay station III treats { X to be weighted₁，X₂Weighting to generate { b }₅X₁，b₅X₂I.e. a channel of signal to be transmitted after weighting processing. Subsequently, the relay station III will b together with the relay station I, II in step S22₅X₁，b₅X₂Transmitted to base station 0 on two time slots of its transmit antenna, respectively.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the execution frequency of step S20 is preferably adjusted according to the time-varying characteristic of the channel, and when the time-varying characteristic of the channel is strong (the channel-related information varies rapidly with time), step S20 is executed more frequently, and step S20 may be executed every other relatively long time.

Taking the relay station III' in fig. 6b as an example again, similarly to the relay station III, it also obtains a weighting coefficient (b) in step S20₆)。

However, the relay station III' needs to treat the signal { X₁，X₂Carries out space-time coding and generates { -X₁ ^*，X₂ ^*Then, for the relay station III ', the step S21 is preceded by a step not shown, where the relay station III' performs the space-time coding operation.

Thereafter, in step S21, the relay station III' treats { -X for weighting processing₁ ^*，X₂ ^*Weighting to generate { -b₆X₁ ^*，b₆X₂ ^*I.e. a channel of signal to be transmitted after weighting processing. Subsequently, in step S22, the relay station III' sends the one weighted signal to be sent to the base station 0 along with the relay station I, II.

Fig. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a method for controlling multiple relay stations to jointly transmit signals to a next-hop device in a base station of a wireless relay network according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the following, a method provided by the third aspect of the invention is described with reference to fig. 9 in combination with fig. 4 a.

As already mentioned above, the base station 0 may provide b for the relay station 4₁It may also be provided with channel-related information for it to generate b itself₁Separately, the following is discussed:

base station 0 provides b for relay station 4₁

In this case, the operation performed at the base station 0 is identical to that of fig. 9, that is, first, in step S30, channel-related information between the base station 0 and each relay station shown in the figure is acquired, and according to an embodiment of the present invention, channel-related information between each receiving antenna of the base station 0 and the transmitting antenna of the relay station 3 and channel-related information between each receiving antenna of the base station 0 and TX-4_1 on the relay station 4 are mainly acquired. For example, channel estimation is performed.

Next, in step S31, the base station 0 generates b from the channel-related information acquired in step S31₁The generation may refer to the related contents described for the system method.

Thereafter, in step S32, the base station 0 generates b for the relay station 4₁To the relay station 4.

(II) base station 0 provides channel related information to relay station 4

In this case, as shown in FIG. 9Step S31 is optional, and the base station does not need to generate b after obtaining the channel related information between the relay station 3 and the relay station 4₁The relay station 4 is directly notified of the obtained channel-related information.

If the downlink signal transmission is taken as an example, the next-hop device of each relay station in the figure is the mobile terminal a, in this case, the mobile terminal a can estimate the channel between its receiving antenna and each transmitting antenna of the relay stations 3 and 4 and report the channel to the base station 0, and the base station 0 generates b based on the estimated channel₁Or b is selectively generated from base station 0₁The required channel-related information is provided to the relay station 4.

In addition, to ensure that the mobile terminal a can correctly detect the received signal, the base station 0 will also generate the weighting factor b for the relay station 4₁Informing the mobile terminal a.

A first joint transmission apparatus in a multi-antenna relay station according to a fourth aspect of the present invention will be described below with reference to fig. 10.

The first joint transmission apparatus 10 shown in fig. 10 includes: first weighting means 100, first signal transmitting means 101, first spatial coding means 102 and first weighting factor obtaining means 103. The first weighting coefficient obtaining device 103 specifically includes: first weighting information obtaining means 1030 and first auxiliary obtaining means 1031. Those skilled in the art will understand that fig. 10 illustrates an apparatus used in the first joint transmission apparatus 10 for convenience according to various embodiments of the present invention, and for a specific embodiment, one or more of the sub-apparatuses illustrated in fig. 10 may not participate in the joint transmission process of signals in the specific embodiment.

Taking the relay station 4 in fig. 4a as an example, it is equipped with two transmit antennas TX-4_1 and TX-4_ 2.

Said first weighting coefficient obtaining means 103 at the relay station 4 obtains the weighting coefficient b₁. It obtains b₁There are the following two ways:

mode 1: by base station 0To obtain a weighting coefficient b₁

In this case, the base station 0 is responsible for generating b based on the channel-related information of the channels between it and the relay stations 3, 4 (including the channel between its receiving antenna and the transmitting antenna of the relay station 3, and the channel between its receiving antenna and TX-4_1)₁And notifies the relay station 4. Accordingly, the first weighting information obtaining means 1030 obtains the weighting coefficient b, which is the weighting coefficient-related information obtained at the base station 0₁. As can be seen, in the mode 1, the first auxiliary obtaining means 1031 is dispensable.

Mode 2: the relay station 4 generates the weighting coefficient b by itself₁

In this case, each sub-device of the first weighting factor obtaining device 103 operates as follows:

the first weighting information obtaining unit 1030 first obtains the information for generating b from the base station 0₁Information related to each channel;

the first auxiliary obtaining means 1031 generates b in accordance with the foregoing equation (1) based on the obtained channel-related information₁。

Alternatively, each of the above-mentioned sub-devices may also obtain b by performing the following operations₁The following operations are particularly applicable when the channel is a symmetric channel:

the first weighting information obtaining device 1030 obtains channel related information (e.g., through channel estimation), obtains channel related information between TX-4_1 and the base station 0, and uses the relay station 3 to perform channel estimation to obtain channel related information between the relay station 3 and the base station 0, and the obtained channel related information is concentrated to the first auxiliary obtaining device 1031;

generating b by the first secondary obtaining means 1031 based on the obtained channel related information₁。

Upon receiving the uplink signal from mobile terminal a, relay station 4 demodulates the uplink signal to obtain a modulation symbol stream { X }₁，X₂，X₃，X₄,., the first spatial encoding device 102 space-time encodes the demodulated symbol stream based on a pre-configured encoding scheme to { X }₁，X₂For example, two paths of symbols { X ] subjected to space-time coding are obtained through the space-time coding₁，X₂And { X }₂ ^*，-X₁ ^*}。

Those skilled in the art understand that, when the channel between the relay station 4 and the base station 0 is a time-varying channel, the first weighting coefficient obtaining device 103 periodically obtains the weighting coefficient for performing weighting processing on the signal to be weighted on TX-4_1, thereby ensuring higher signal quality at the receiving end. When the channel has poor time-varying characteristics or even is a time-invariant channel, the period of obtaining the weighting coefficients may be long, and even the relay station 4 does not perform the obtaining operation after obtaining the weighting coefficients once, i.e., before the channel conditions change due to other reasons. Moreover, the first weighting factor obtaining means 103 does not have a strict time order with the operation of the first spatial encoding means 102.

Thereafter, the weighting coefficient b obtained by the first weighting means 100 by the first weighting coefficient obtaining means 103 is used₁One path of signal to be transmitted on TX-4_1 is weighted to generate b₁X₁，b₁X₂}。

Next, the first signal transmission device 101 transmits the generated weighted signal to the base station 0 together with the relay station 3.

According to a specific embodiment of the present invention, a multi-antenna relay station does not spatially encode the signal to be processed, but transmits the signal in a spatially diverse or spatially multiplexed manner, wherein one or more signals are weighted before being transmitted.

Fig. 11 shows a block diagram of a second joint transmission apparatus for transmitting a signal to a next hop device in conjunction with other relay stations in a single antenna relay station of a wireless relay network according to an embodiment of the present invention.

A fifth aspect of the present invention will be described below with reference to fig. 11 in conjunction with fig. 6a and 6 b. The second joint sending apparatus 20 shown includes: second weighting means 200, second signal transmitting means 201, second spatial coding means 202 and second weighting factor obtaining means 203. The second weighting coefficient obtaining device 203 specifically includes: second weighting information obtaining means 2030 and second auxiliary obtaining means 2031. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that fig. 11 illustrates the apparatus for use in the second joint sending apparatus 20 according to various embodiments of the present invention for convenience, and that for a specific embodiment, one or more of the sub-apparatuses illustrated in fig. 11 may not participate in the joint sending process of signals in the specific embodiment.

Take relay station III in fig. 6a as an example.

The second weighting coefficient obtaining means 203 at the relay station III obtains the weighting coefficient b₅The specific method is the same as the method for obtaining the weighting coefficient by the multi-antenna relay station, that is, b generated by the base station 0 directly₅Sent to the relay station III and obtained by the second weight information obtaining device, and preferably, b is generated based on the idea of the above equation (5)₅. The base station 0 can also provide the relay station III with the channel related information between the relay station I and the base station 0 and the channel related information between the relay station III and the base station 0, the channel related information is obtained by the second weighting information obtaining device 2030 and then provided to the second auxiliary obtaining device 2031, which generates b according to the channel related information₅. B is₅Is preferably maximized based on the received signal quality at the receiving end (base station 0), including any one or any plurality of: receiving signal power; a ratio of received signal power to noise power; a ratio of received signal power to interference signal power; the ratio of the received signal power to the sum of the noise power and the interference signal power.

Obtained weighting factor b₅Provided to a second weighting means 200, the second weighting means 200 will treat { X to be weighted₁，X₂Get addedWeight processing to generate { b₅X₁，b₅X₂I.e. a signal to be transmitted. Subsequently, the second signal transmitting device 201 transmits a signal b to be transmitted₅X₁，b₅X₂And respectively transmitted to the base station 0 on two time slots of the transmitting antenna of the relay station III.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the frequency at which the second weighting factor obtaining means 203 obtains the weighting factors is preferably referenced to the time-varying characteristic of the channel, and is more frequent when the channel time-variation is stronger (the channel-related information changes faster with time), and may instead be performed every considerable time.

It can be seen that the second spatial encoding means 202 is economized for the relay station III.

Taking the relay station III' in fig. 6b as an example again, similarly to the relay station III, it also obtains the weighting coefficient (b) by using the second weighting coefficient obtaining device 203₆)。

However, the relay station III' needs to use the second spatial encoding device 202 thereon to treat the signal { X₁，X₂Carries out space-time coding and generates { -X₁ ^*，X₂ ^*And is used for sending.

Generated { -X₁ ^*，X₂ ^*Is supplied to second weighting means 200, which uses b6 to treat the processed { -X for weighting₁ ^*，X₂ ^*Weighting to generate { -b₆X₁ ^*，b₆X₂ ^*I.e. a signal to be transmitted. Then { -b to be generated by the second signal transmission apparatus 201₆X₁ ^*，b₆X₂ ^*It sends it to base station 0.

Hereinafter, a control apparatus provided by a sixth aspect of the present invention is described with reference to fig. 12 in conjunction with fig. 4 a. The illustrated control device 30 includes: acquisition means 300, generation means 301 and notification means 302.

As already mentioned above, the base station 0 may provide b for the relay station 4₁It may also be provided with channel-related information for it to generate b itself₁Separately, the following is discussed:

base station 0 provides b for relay station 4₁

In this case, first, the acquiring device 300 acquires the channel-related information between the base station 0 and each relay station shown in the figure, and according to an embodiment of the present invention, mainly acquires the channel-related information between each receiving antenna of the base station 0 and the transmitting antenna of the relay station 3, and the channel-related information between each receiving antenna of the base station 0 and TX-4_1 on the relay station 4. For example, channel estimation is performed.

Next, the generation means 301 generates b from the channel-related information acquired by the acquisition means 300₁The generation may refer to the related contents described for the system method.

Thereafter, b to be generated for the relay station 4 by the notifying means 302₁To the relay station 4.

(II) base station 0 provides channel related information to relay station 4

In this case, the generation device 301 shown in fig. 12 is not necessary to generate b after the acquisition device 300 obtains the channel-related information between the base station 0 and the relay stations 3 and 4₁The obtained channel-related information is directly notified to the relay station 4 by the notification means 302.

If the downlink signal transmission is taken as an example, the next-hop device of each relay station in the figure is the mobile terminal a, in this case, the mobile terminal a can estimate the channel between its receiving antenna and each transmitting antenna of the relay stations 3 and 4 and report the channel to the base station 0, and the base station 0 generates b based on the estimated channel₁Or b is selectively generated from base station 0₁The required channel-related information is provided to the relay station 4.

In addition, to ensure that the mobile terminal a can correctly detect the received signal, the base station 0 further informs the mobile terminal a of the weighting coefficient b1 generated for the relay station 4, specifically by a sub-apparatus not shown in fig. 12.

Fig. 13 is a flowchart illustrating a method for detecting received signals jointly transmitted by multiple relay stations in a network device of a wireless relay network according to an embodiment of the present invention. However, since the existing receiver can support the present invention without modification when different relay stations transmit the same pilot signal on the matched antenna, the following description is mainly directed to the case where different relay stations transmit different pilot symbols on the matched antenna.

In step S40, the base station 0 estimates the channel responses between each receiving antenna of the base station and all transmitting antennas of all relay stations, and then combines the channel responses of the matched antennas with corresponding weighting coefficients to perform corresponding linear weighting combination, so as to obtain the equivalent channel responses corresponding thereto.

Then, in step S41, the base station 0 detects the received signal according to the equivalent channel response generated, thereby recovering the original modulation symbol X₁，X₂。

Fig. 14 shows a block diagram of a signal detection apparatus for detecting received signals jointly transmitted by multiple relay stations in a network device of a wireless relay network according to an embodiment of the present invention. The illustrated signal detection device 40 includes: equivalence generation apparatus 400 and detection apparatus 401.

First, the equivalent generation apparatus 400 estimates channel responses between each receiving antenna of the base station 0 and all transmitting antennas of all relay stations, and then combines the channel responses of the matched antennas with corresponding weighting coefficients to obtain equivalent channel responses corresponding thereto.

Then, the detection device 401 detects the received signal according to the generated equivalent channel response, thereby recovering the original modulation symbolX₁，X₂。

While embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to a particular system, device, and protocol, and various modifications and changes may be made by those skilled in the art within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims (34)

1. A method in a multi-antenna relay station of a wireless relay network for transmitting a signal to a next-hop device in conjunction with other relay stations, comprising the steps of:

b. weighting one or more paths of signals to be weighted in the multiple paths of signals to be sent by the multi-antenna relay and other relay stations by using the weighting coefficients to generate one or more paths of signals to be sent after weighting;

c. and sending the one or more paths of signals to be sent after weighting processing and the rest of the paths of signals to be sent without weighting processing to the next hop equipment, so that the antennas of the multi-antenna relay station for sending the signals after weighting processing and the corresponding antennas of the other relay stations send corresponding symbols at the same time or the same frequency.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein step b is preceded by the step of:

a. carrying out spatial coding on a signal to be processed to generate a plurality of paths of signals subjected to spatial coding; the step b further comprises the following steps:

-weighting one or more spatially encoded signals to be weighted of the plurality of spatially encoded signals with a weighting factor to generate the one or more weighted signals to be transmitted.

3. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein step b is preceded by:

i. and obtaining the weighting coefficient.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein step i further comprises:

i1. and obtaining the relevant information of the weighting coefficient from the base station to which the relay station belongs.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the weighting factor related information comprises any one or more of:

-said weighting coefficients for weighting one or more of said plurality of signals to be weighted;

-channel related information between a plurality of said relays and said next hop device;

wherein, when the weighting coefficient related information is channel related information between a plurality of relay stations in the relay stations and the next hop device, the step i1 is followed by further comprising:

i2. and generating the weighting coefficient for weighting one or more signals to be weighted in the multiple paths of signals based on the channel related information between the multiple relay stations in each relay station and the next hop device.

6. The method according to any of claims 3-5, wherein the weighting coefficients are used to achieve a maximization of received signal quality at the next hop device, wherein the received signal quality comprises any one or more of:

-a received signal power;

-a ratio of received signal power to noise power;

-a ratio of received signal power to interference signal power;

-ratio of received signal power to the sum of noise power, interference signal power.

7. The method according to any of claims 1 to 6, wherein the spatial encoding comprises any of:

-space-time coding;

-space frequency coding.

8. A method in a single antenna relay station of a wireless relay network for transmitting a signal to a next hop device in conjunction with other relay stations, comprising the steps of:

p, weighting the signal to be weighted by using a weighting coefficient to generate a channel of signal to be sent after weighting;

and Q, sending the weighted signals to be sent to the next hop equipment, wherein the number of the channels of the signals to be sent, which are weighted in each relay station, is less than the total number of the channels of the signals to be sent, and the antennas of the single-antenna relay station and the corresponding antennas of the other relay stations send corresponding symbols at the same time or the same frequency.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the step P is preceded by:

carrying out spatial coding on a signal to be processed to generate a path of signal to be weighted which is subjected to spatial coding;

the step P further includes:

-weighting the spatially encoded signal to be weighted with a weighting coefficient to generate the weighted signal to be transmitted.

10. The method according to claim 8 or 9, wherein said step P is preceded by the further step of:

-obtaining the weighting coefficients for weighting the signals to be weighted.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the step of obtaining the weighting coefficients for weighting the signals to be weighted comprises:

-obtaining weighting factor related information from the base station to which the relay station belongs.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the weighting factor related information comprises any one or more of:

-the weighting coefficients for weighting the signals to be weighted;

-channel related information between a plurality of said relays and said next hop device;

wherein, when the weighting coefficient related information is channel related information between a plurality of relay stations in the relay stations and the next hop device, after the step of obtaining the weighting coefficient related information by the base station to which the relay station belongs, the method further comprises:

-generating the weighting coefficients for weighting the signal to be transmitted based on channel related information between a plurality of the relay stations and the next hop device;

the weighting coefficients are used to achieve a maximization of received signal quality at the next hop device, wherein the received signal quality comprises any one or any plurality of:

-a received signal power;

-a ratio of received signal power to noise power;

-a ratio of received signal power to interference signal power;

-ratio of received signal power to the sum of noise power, interference signal power.

13. The method according to any of claims 8 to 12, wherein the spatial encoding comprises any of:

-space-time coding;

-space frequency coding.

14. A method for controlling a plurality of relay stations to jointly transmit signals to a next-hop device in a base station of a wireless relay network, comprising the following steps:

A. and providing weighting coefficient related information for one or more relay stations in the plurality of relay stations, wherein the weighting coefficient related information is used for performing weighting processing on signals to be weighted by the one or more relay stations, the number of paths of signals to be weighted in each relay station is smaller than the total number of paths of the signals to be weighted, and antennas of the one or more relay stations performing weighting processing, which transmit the signals subjected to weighting processing, and corresponding antennas of other relay stations transmit corresponding symbols at the same time or the same frequency.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the weighting factor related information comprises any one or more of:

-said weighting coefficients;

-channel related information between a plurality of said relays and said next hop device.

16. A first joint transmission apparatus in a multi-antenna relay station of a wireless relay network for jointly transmitting a signal to a next-hop device with other relay stations, comprising:

a first weighting device, configured to perform weighting processing on one or more signals to be weighted in multiple paths of signals to be transmitted by the multi-antenna relay and other relay stations by using a weighting coefficient, so as to generate one or more signals to be transmitted after being weighted;

a first signal sending device, configured to send the one or more channels of signals to be sent after being weighted and the rest of the channels of signals to be sent without being weighted to the next hop device, so that the antenna of the multi-antenna relay station that sends the signals after being weighted and the corresponding antennas of the other relay stations send corresponding symbols at the same time or at the same frequency.

17. The first joint transmission apparatus according to claim 16, further comprising:

the first spatial coding device is used for carrying out spatial coding on the signal to be processed so as to generate a plurality of paths of signals subjected to spatial coding;

the first weighting device is further configured to perform weighting processing on one or more to-be-weighted signals in the multiple spatially encoded signals by using a weighting coefficient to generate one or more to-be-weighted signals.

18. The first joint transmission apparatus according to claim 17, further comprising:

and the first weighting coefficient obtaining device is used for obtaining a weighting coefficient, wherein the weighting coefficient is used for carrying out weighting processing on the one or more paths of signals to be weighted.

19. The first joint transmission apparatus according to claim 18, wherein the first weighting factor obtaining means further comprises:

the first weighting information obtaining device is used for obtaining the weighting coefficient related information from the base station to which the relay station belongs.

20. The first joint transmission apparatus according to claim 19, wherein the weighting coefficient related information comprises any one or more of:

-said weighting coefficients for weighting said one or more signals to be weighted;

-channel related information between a plurality of said relays and said next hop device;

wherein, when the weighting coefficient related information is channel related information between a plurality of relay stations in the relay stations and the next hop device, the first weighting coefficient obtaining apparatus further includes:

a first auxiliary obtaining device, configured to generate the weighting coefficient for weighting the one or multiple signals to be weighted based on channel related information between the multiple relay stations in each relay station and the next hop device.

21. The first joint transmission apparatus according to any of claims 16 to 20, wherein the weighting factor is used to maximize received signal quality at the next hop device, wherein the received signal quality comprises any one or more of:

-a received signal power;

-a ratio of received signal power to noise power;

-a ratio of received signal power to interference signal power;

-ratio of received signal power to the sum of noise power, interference signal power.

22. The first joint transmission apparatus according to any of claims 16 to 21, wherein the spatial coding comprises any of:

-space-time coding;

-spatial encoding.

23. A second joint transmission apparatus in a single-antenna relay station of a wireless relay network for transmitting a signal to a next-hop device in joint with other relay stations, comprising:

the second weighting device is used for weighting the signal to be weighted by using the weighting coefficient so as to generate a channel of weighted signal to be sent;

second signal transmitting means for transmitting the weighted signal to be transmitted to the next hop device;

the number of paths of signals to be transmitted, which are subjected to weighting processing in each relay station, is smaller than the total number of paths of signals to be transmitted, and the antennas of the single-antenna relay station and the corresponding antennas of the other relay stations transmit corresponding symbols at the same time or the same frequency.

24. The second joint transmission apparatus of claim 23, further comprising:

the second spatial coding device is used for carrying out spatial coding on the signal to be processed so as to generate a path of signal to be weighted which is subjected to spatial coding;

the second weighting means is further configured to:

-weighting the spatially encoded signal to be weighted by using a weighting coefficient to generate the weighted signal to be transmitted.

25. The second combined sending apparatus according to claim 23 or 24, further comprising:

and the second weighting coefficient obtaining device is used for obtaining the weighting coefficient used for carrying out weighting processing on the path of signals to be weighted.

26. The second joint transmission apparatus according to claim 25, wherein the second weighting factor obtaining means further comprises:

and a second weighting information acquiring device for acquiring the weighting coefficient related information from the base station to which the relay station belongs.

27. The method according to claim 26, wherein the weighting factor related information comprises any one or more of:

-said weighting coefficients for weighting said one signal to be weighted;

-channel related information between a plurality of said relays and said next hop device;

wherein, when the weighting coefficient related information is channel related information between a plurality of relay stations in the relay stations and the next hop device, the second weighting coefficient obtaining apparatus further includes:

a second auxiliary obtaining device, configured to generate the weighting coefficient for performing weighting processing on the one path of signal to be weighted based on channel related information between the multiple relay stations in each relay station and the next hop device;

the weighting coefficients are used to achieve a maximization of received signal quality at the next hop device, wherein the received signal quality comprises any one or any plurality of:

-a received signal power;

-a ratio of received signal power to noise power;

-a ratio of received signal power to interference signal power;

-ratio of received signal power to the sum of noise power, interference signal power.

28. The second joint transmission apparatus according to any one of claims 23 to 27, wherein the spatial coding comprises any one of:

-space-time coding;

-spatial encoding.

29. A control device in a base station of a wireless relay network for controlling a plurality of relay stations to jointly transmit signals to a next hop device is characterized by comprising a device for providing weighting coefficient related information for one or more relay stations in the plurality of relay stations, wherein the weighting coefficient related information is used for weighting signals to be weighted by the one or more relay stations, the number of paths of the signals to be weighted in each relay station is smaller than the total number of paths of the signals to be weighted, and antennas of the one or more relay stations which are weighted and used for transmitting the weighted signals and corresponding antennas of other relay stations transmit corresponding symbols at the same time or the same frequency.

30. The control device according to claim 29, wherein the weighting coefficient-related information includes any one or more of:

-a weighting factor;

-channel related information between a plurality of said relays and said next hop device.

31. A method for multi-relay joint transmission of signals to a next-hop device in a wireless relay network, comprising the steps of:

one or more relay stations in the plurality of relay stations perform weighting processing on N channels of signals to be weighted in M channels of signals to generate N channels of signals to be transmitted which are subjected to weighting processing and M-N channels of signals to be transmitted which are not subjected to weighting processing, wherein M is a positive integer larger than 1, and N is a positive integer larger than zero and smaller than M;

and III, the plurality of relay stations transmit the N paths of signals to be transmitted which are subjected to weighting processing and the M-N paths of signals to be transmitted which are not subjected to weighting processing to the next hop equipment, so that the antennas of the relay stations which are subjected to weighting processing and transmit the signals which are subjected to weighting processing and the corresponding antennas of other relay stations transmit corresponding symbols at the same time or the same frequency.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein step II is preceded by:

I. one or more relay stations in the plurality of relay stations carry out space coding on signals to be processed so as to generate the M paths of signals;

the step II further comprises the following steps:

-one or more relay stations of the plurality of relay stations perform weighting processing on N signals to be weighted in the M signals to generate the N signals to be transmitted after being weighted and the M-N signals to be transmitted without being weighted.

33. A method in a network device of a wireless relay network for detecting received signals jointly transmitted by multiple relay stations, comprising the steps of:

-generating equivalent channel related information for signals transmitted by the matched antennas based on channel related information between the network device and matched antennas of one or more of the plurality of relay stations subjected to weighting processing and weighting coefficients used by the one or more relay stations subjected to weighting processing for weighting signals to be weighted, wherein the number of paths of signals to be transmitted subjected to weighting processing in each relay station is smaller than the total number of paths of signals to be transmitted, and the antennas of the one or more relay stations subjected to weighting processing for transmitting weighted signals and corresponding antennas of other relay stations transmit corresponding symbols at the same time or at the same frequency;

-detecting the received signals jointly transmitted by the plurality of relay stations using the generated equivalent channel related information.

34. A signal detection apparatus in a network device of a wireless relay network, for detecting a received signal jointly transmitted by multiple relay stations, the apparatus comprising:

an equivalent generating device, configured to generate equivalent channel related information for signals sent by the matched antennas based on channel related information between the network device and matched antennas of one or more relay stations that have undergone weighting processing among the multiple relay stations, and weighting coefficients used by the one or more relay stations that have undergone weighting processing to weight signals to be weighted, where the number of paths of signals to be sent that have undergone weighting processing in each relay station is smaller than the total number of paths of signals to be sent, and corresponding symbols are sent at the same time or the same frequency by antennas of the one or more relay stations that have undergone weighting processing and send weighted signals and corresponding antennas of other relay stations;

and a detecting device, configured to detect the received signals jointly transmitted by the plurality of relay stations by using the generated equivalent channel related information.