Optimal Beamforming for Dual-Hop MIMO AF Relay Networks With Cochannel Interferences

In this paper, we investigate a beamforming (BF) scheme for a dual-hop multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) amplify-and-forward (AF) relay network in the presence of multiple cochannel interferences (CCIs) at both the relay and the destination nodes. In order to maximize the signal-to-interference-plus- noise ratio at the destination node, the optimal BF weights for the relay network in the presence of CCIs are derived. A tight lower bound on the outage probability (OP) is derived in a closed form by assuming that multiple CCIs have equal power at the relay and destination nodes. Through computer simulations, it is shown that the proposed BF scheme can outperform the existing schemes. Furthermore, the impacts of antenna configurations, CCIs, and power allocation on the outage performance of the MIMO AF relay systems have been demonstrated with simulations.