Degrees of Freedom of Multi-Source Relay Networks

We study a multi-source Gaussian relay network consisting of $K$ source–destination pairs having $K$ unicast sessions. We assume $M$ layers of relays between the sources and the destinations. We find achievable degrees of freedom of the network. Our schemes are based on interference alignment at the transmitters and symbol extension and opportunistic interference cancellation at the relays. For $K$-$L$-$K$ networks, i.e., 2-hop network with $L$ relays, we show $\min \{K,K\mathrm{/}2+L\mathrm{/}(2(K-1))\}$ degrees of freedom are achievable. For $K$-hop networks with $K$ relays in each layer, we show the full $K$ degrees of freedom are achievable provided that $K$ is even and the channel distribution satisfies a certain symmetry.