Capacity Analysis of OFDM Systems with a Swarm of Network-Controlled Repeaters

2026-04-15

AI Summary

This study addresses the capacity limitation of network-controlled repeater (NCR) cluster-aided OFDM uplink systems by rigorously deriving, for the first time within a broadband OFDM framework, the channel capacity expression under a continuous-time bandpass model that accounts for amplified noise from multiple relays. The analysis reveals that activating only the relay nearest to the user can closely approach the performance of fully activated relays, substantially reducing energy consumption. Numerical results demonstrate that NCR clusters effectively enhance system capacity, and even simple activation strategies achieve near-optimal performance, thereby validating their efficiency and scalability for coverage extension and capacity improvement.

Technology Category

• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Optimization of Spatio-temporal Systems
• Multiagent Systems: Agent Communication
• Search and Optimization: Distributed Search

Application Category

• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Energy management for devices in mobile Web and WoT environments
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Incentives in network design for Web infrastructures and ecosystems
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Efficiency and scalability of Web search engines

Abstract

This paper investigates the uplink capacity of single-input single-output (SISO) systems assisted by a swarm of network-controlled repeaters (NCRs). We develop a rigorous wideband formulation based on OFDM signaling. Starting from the continuous-time passband model, we derive the capacity expression for the repeater-assisted OFDM channel, accounting for amplified noise contributions from multiple repeaters. Numerical results demonstrate that NCRs can substantially enhance system capacity even with simple activation strategies, and that activating only the closest repeater yields nearly the same performance as activating all repeaters, thereby offering significant energy-saving opportunities. These findings highlight the potential of NCR swarms as a cost-effective and scalable solution for coverage extension and capacity enhancement in wideband wireless networks.

Problem

• OFDM
• network-controlled repeaters
• capacity analysis
• SISO
• wideband

Innovation

• network-controlled repeaters
• OFDM capacity
• wideband modeling
• amplified noise
• energy-efficient activation