Stage-by-stage successive MIMO decoding for multihop communications

A method of estimating a relayed wireless signal at a destination network node in a multihop wireless communications network, the method comprising:

• receiving, at the destination network node, a wireless signal relayed from a plurality of network nodes, each of the network nodes corresponding to a relay stage, and wherein the received relayed wireless signal comprises successive quantizations of a source wireless signal performed at each relay stage by one of the plurality of network nodes;
• receiving, at the destination network node, a plurality of messages, each message of the plurality of messages including quantization information associated with a quantization performed at a corresponding relay stage, the quantization information comprising parameters characterizing operation of a quantizer used at the corresponding relay stage including at least one of a quantization level, a quantization rate, and a quantization codebook;
• estimating a wireless signal received at a previous relay stage using a quantized multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channel model with the received relayed wireless signal and a message of the plurality of messages corresponding to the quantization performed at the previous relay stage;
• and
• estimating the source wireless signal using the estimated wireless signal received at the previous relay stage and the plurality of messages to estimate a wireless signal received at each of the previous relay stages.

A network node operable to relay wireless signals to a second network node in a multihop wireless communications network, the network node comprising a processor operable to:

• receive a wireless signal;
• quantize the wireless signal;
• associate quantization information with the quantized wireless signal in a message, the quantization information comprising parameters characterizing operation of a quantizer used to quantize the wireless signal including at least one of a quantization level, a quantization rate, and a quantization codebook;
• and
• transmit the quantized wireless signal and the message to the second network node.

A network node operable to estimate a relayed wireless signal in a multihop wireless communications network, the network node comprising a processor operable to:

• receive a wireless signal relayed from a plurality of relay network nodes, each of the relay network nodes corresponding to a relay stage, and wherein the received relayed wireless signal comprises successive quantizations of a source wireless signal performed at each relay stage by one of the plurality of relay network nodes;
• receive a plurality of messages, each message of the plurality of messages including quantization information associated with a quantization performed at a corresponding relay stage, the quantization information comprising parameters characterizing operation of a quantizer used at the corresponding relay stage including at least one of a quantization level, a quantization rate, and a quantization codebook;
• estimate a wireless signal received at a previous relay stage using a quantized multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channel model with the received relayed wireless signal and a message of the plurality of messages corresponding to the quantization performed at the previous relay stage;
• and
• estimate the source wireless signal using the estimated wireless signal received at the previous relay stage and the plurality of messages to estimate a wireless signal received at each of the previous relay stages.