Relay Technology for 5G Networks and IoT Applications

Relaying technologies have been actively studied in mobile broadband communication systems, and were considered in the most recent standard releases of the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), including “Long Term Evolution Advanced” (LTE-A) networks. This chapter provides an in-depth review of the relay technology that is being considered for future 5G networks. The article first introduces and compares different relay types that use LTE-A standards, and presents the relay benefits in terms of performance and operational costs. It then highlights future relay deployment strategies that have been discussed by the 3GPP, which supports multi-hopping, mobility, and heterogeneity. In addition, it also proposes efficient deployment strategies, along with their impact on network performance. Finally, the chapter explains a few of the associated challenges that lie ahead for relay application, and provides a video streaming application.