Multiple Antenna Assisted Hard Versus Soft Decoding-And-Forwarding for Network Coding Aided Relaying Systems

In this paper, the authors propose two types of new decoding algorithms for a Network Coding aided Relaying (NCR) system, which adopts multiple antennas at both the transmitter and receiver. They consider the realistic scenario of encountering decoding errors at the Relay Station (RS), which results in erroneous forwarded data. Under this assumption, they derive decoding algorithms for both the Base Station (BS) and the Mobile Station (MS) in order to reduce the deleterious effects of imperfect decoding at the RS. They first propose a decoding algorithm for a Hard Decision based Forwarding (HDF) system.