  Wireless technologies can support a broad range of smart grid applications
including advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and demand response (DR).
However, there are many formidable challenges when wireless technologies are
applied to the smart gird, e.g., the tradeoffs between wireless coverage and
capacity, the high reliability requirement for communication, and limited
spectral resources. Relaying has emerged as one of the most promising candidate
solutions for addressing these issues. In this article, an introduction to
various relaying strategies is presented, together with a discussion of how to
improve spectral efficiency and coverage in relay-based information and
communications technology (ICT) infrastructure for smart grid applications.
Special attention is paid to the use of unidirectional relaying, collaborative
beamforming, and bidirectional relaying strategies.
