Optimal designs of collaborative relay‐assisted multiuser beamforming for cellular systems

With careful calculation of signal forwarding weights, relay nodes can be used to work collaboratively to enhance downlink transmission performance by forming a virtual multiple‐input multiple‐output beamforming system. Although collaborative relay beamforming schemes for single user have been widely investigated for cellular systems in previous literatures, there are few studies on the relay beamforming for multiusers. In this paper, we study the collaborative downlink signal transmission with multiple amplify‐and‐forward relay nodes for multiusers in cellular systems. We propose two new algorithms to determine the beamforming weights with the same objective of minimizing power consumption of the relay nodes. In the first algorithm, we aim to guarantee the received signal‐to‐noise ratio at multiusers for the relay beamforming with orthogonal channels. We prove that the solution obtained by a semidefinite relaxation technology is optimal. In the second algorithm, we propose an iterative algorithm that jointly selects the base station antennas and optimizes the relay beamforming weights to reach the target signal‐to‐interference‐and‐noise ratio at multiusers with nonorthogonal channels. Numerical results validate our theoretical analysis and demonstrate that the proposed optimal schemes can effectively reduce the relay power consumption compared with several other beamforming approaches. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multiple Peer-to-Peer Communications Using a Network of Relays

We consider an ad hoc wireless network consisting of d source-destination pairs communicating, in a pairwise manner, via R relaying nodes. The relay nodes wish to cooperate, through a decentralized beamforming algorithm, in order to establish all the communication links from each source to its respective destination. Our communication strategy consists of two steps. In the first step, all sources transmit their signals simultaneously. As a result, each relay receives a noisy faded mixture of all source signals. In the second step, each relay transmits an amplitude- and phase-adjusted version of its received signal. That is each relay multiply its received signal by a complex coefficient and retransmits the so-obtained signal. Our goal is to obtain these complex coefficients (beamforming weights) through minimization of the total relay transmit power while the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) at the destinations are guaranteed to be above certain predefined thresholds. Although such a power minimization problem is not convex, we use semidefinite relaxation to turn this problem into a semidefinite programming (SDP) problem. Therefore, we can efficiently solve the SDP problem using interior point methods. Our numerical examples reveal that for high network data rates, our space division multiplexing scheme requires significantly less total relay transmit power compared to other orthogonal multiplexing schemes, such as time-division multiple access schemes.     

Joint Clustering Relay Selection and Beamforming in Cooperative Cognitive Radio Networks

This paper proposes a joint clustering relay selection and beamforming method for a more realistic cooperative cognitive radio network, in which a secondary network of multiple secondary links and a relay network coexist with a primary network of one primary link. We aim to improve performance of the system in terms of maximizing the received signal power of the secondary destinations, subject to the constraint of received interference plus noise power of the primary destination using the proposed method. Since different relays cooperate differently towards the signals at the secondary and primary destinations, the proposed method can improve the performance of the system and enables the relay network to simultaneously transmit signals of all secondary links toward the destinations by clustering the relays. Results of simulations confirm validity of the method and improve the system performance compared to the existing cooperative beamforming and Zero-Forcing beamforming, in which no relay selection strategy is used.     

无线网络中基于DSDV的最大化吞吐量的协作路由算法

为最大化无线自组织网络的吞吐量,提出一种自适应的协作路由算法。在算法中,协作分集技术与路由选择相结合,通过在路由的每一跳选择最佳的中继节点协作发送节点传输信息来改善网络吞吐量。首先通过目的序列距离矢量路由协议（DSDV）初步建立最短路由路径,在每条链路的发送节点和接收节点根据邻节点表选出公共邻居节点,建立候选中继集合;进一步,每一跳根据链路吞吐量,在候选中继集合中自适应选择最多两个中继来协助发送节点进行传输,并根据选出的中继节点数动态分配节点发射功率。在保证系统发射功率一定的情况下,最大化网络吞吐量。仿真结果表明,在相同的发射功率下,相对于非协作路由DSDV算法,采用固定数量中继的协作路由算法提高了整个网络的吞吐量,而自适应的协作路由算法可进一步提高吞吐量;同时仿真了网络吞吐量与网络规模和节点最大移动速度的变化关系。      

拥有多天线源节点的放大转发双向中继信道机会中继策略研究

We consider a two-way relay network where the Amplify-and-Forward (AF) protocol is adopted by all relays in this paper. The network consists of two multi-antenna source nodes and multiple distributed single-antenna relays. Two opportunistic relaying schemes are proposed to efficiently utilize the antennas of the source nodes and the relay nodes. In the first scheme, the best relay is selected out by a max-min-max criterion before transmitting. After that, at each source, only the antenna with the largest channel gain between itself and the best relay is activated to transmit and receive signals with full power. In the second scheme, assisted by the best relay which is selected by the typical max-min criterion, both source nodes use all their antennas to exchange data, and match filter beamforming techniques are employed at both source nodes. Further analyses show that all schemes can achieve the full diversity order, and the conclusions are not only mathematically demonstrated but numerically illustrated. System performance comparisons are carried out by numerical methods in terms of rate sum and outage probability, respectively. The beamforming assisted scheme can be found to be superior to the antenna selection scheme when accurate Channel State Information (CSI) is available at the transmitters. Otherwise, the latter is very suitable.     

SNR based secure communication via untrusted amplify-and-forward relay nodes using artificial noise

A two-phase beamforming solution for secure communication using untrusted relay nodes is presented. To thwart eavesdropping attempts of participant relay nodes, we deliberately introduce artificial noise in the source message. We observe that for certain scenarios, the source node prefers to allocate its full power to the message signal and, therefore, in the absence of artificial noise, such transmissions will be vulnerable to eavesdropping. Therefore, we provide a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) based framework for secure communication. We intend to bring down the SNR at each of the untrusted relay nodes below a certain predefined threshold; whereas, using beamforming, we want to boost the SNR at the destination. With this motive, we evaluate the optimal scaling vector for the beamforming phase, which not only nullifies the artificial noise transmitted initially, but also maximizes the SNR at the destination. We discuss both the total and individual power constraint scenarios and provide an analytical optimal solution and an iterative algorithm, respectively.     

Design of Distributed Beamforming for Dual‐Hop Multiple‐Access Relay Networks

This paper studies a dual‐hop multiple‐access relay network where two independent source nodes transmit information to a common destination node with the aid of multiple single‐antenna amplify‐and‐forward relays. Each relay node is subject to an individual power constraint. We focus on the design of distributed beamforming schemes for the relays to support the transmission rate requirements of the two sources. To this end, we first characterize the achievable rate region for this network via solving a sequence of corner point optimization problems proposed in this paper. We also develop several low‐complexity suboptimal schemes in closed form. Two inner bounds of the achievable rate region are theoretically shown to be approximately optimal in two special scenarios. Finally, numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed approaches.     

Amplify-and-Forward Relay Networks Under Received Power Constraint

Relay networks have received considerable attention recently, especially when limited size and power resources impose constraints on the number of antennas at each node. While fixed and mobile relays can co-operate to improve reception at the desired destination, they also contribute to un-intended interference for neighboring cells reusing the same frequency. In this paper, we propose and analyze a relay scheme to simultaneously maximize SNR and minimize MSE, for an amplify-and-forward (AF) relay network operating under a receive power constraint guaranteeing that the received signal power is bounded to control interference to neighboring cells. If the intended destination lies at the periphery of the cell, then the proposed scheme guarantees that the total power leaking into neighboring cells is bounded. The optimal relay factors are provided for both correlated and uncorrelated noise at the relays. Simulation results are presented to verify the analysis.     

Power allocations in minimum-energy SER-constrained cooperative networks

In this paper, we propose minimum power allocation strategies for repetition-based amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying, given a required symbol error rate (SER) at the destination. We consider the scenario where one source and multiple relays cooperate to transmit messages to the destination. We derive the optimal power allocation strategy for two-hop AF cooperative network that minimizes the total relay power subject to the SER requirement at the destination. Two outstanding features of the proposed schemes are that the power coefficients have a simple solution and are independent of knowledge of instantaneous channel state information (CSI). We further extend the SER constraint minimum power allocation to the case of multibranch, multihop network and derive the closed-form solution for the power control coefficients. For the case of power-limited relays, we propose two iterative algorithms to find the power coefficients for the SER constraint minimum-energy cooperative networks. However, this power minimization strategy does not necessarily maximize the lifetime of battery-limited systems. Thus, we propose two other AF cooperative schemes which consider the residual battery energy, as well as the statistical CSI, for the purpose of lifetime maximization. Simulations show that the proposed minimum power allocation strategies could considerably save the total transmitted power compared to the equal transmit power scheme.     

Duality and Rate Optimization for Multiple Access and Broadcast Channels With Amplify-and-Forward Relays

In this paper, we consider multihop multiple access (MAC) and broadcast channels (BC) where communication takes place with the assistance of relays that amplify and forward (AF) their received signals. For a two-hop parallel AF relay MAC, assuming a sum power constraint across all relays we characterize optimal relay amplification factors and the resulting optimal rate regions. We find the maximum sum rate and the maximum rate for each user in closed form and express the optimal rate pair (R₁, R₂) that maximizes mu₁R₁+mu₂R₂ as the solution of a pair of simultaneous equations. We find that the parallel AF relay MAC with total transmit power of the two users P₁+P₂=P and total relay power P_R is the dual of the parallel AF relay BC where the MAC source nodes become the BC destination nodes, the MAC destination node becomes the BC source node, the dual BC source transmit power is P_R and the total transmit power of the AF relays is P. The duality means that the rate region of the AF relay MAC with a sum power constraint P on the transmitters is the same as that of the dual BC. The duality relationship is found to be useful in characterizing the rate region of the AF relay BC as the union of MAC rate regions. The duality is established for distributed multiple antenna AF relay nodes and multiple (more than 2) hops as well.     

Optimal beamforming for two-way multi-antenna relay channel with analogue network coding

This paper studies the wireless two-way relay channel (TWRC), where two source nodes, S1 and S2, exchange information through an assisting relay node, R. It is assumed that R receives the sum signal from S1 and S2 in one timeslot, and then amplifies and forwards the received signal to both S1 and S2 in the next time-slot. By applying the principle of analogue network coding (ANC), each of S1 and S2 cancels the so-called "self-interference" in the received signal from R and then decodes the desired message. Assuming that S1 and S2 are each equipped with a single antenna and R with multi-antennas, this paper analyzes the capacity region of the ANC-based TWRC with linear processing (beamforming) at R. The capacity region contains all the achievable bidirectional rate-pairs of S1 and S2 under the given transmit power constraints at S1, S2, and R. We present the optimal relay beamforming structure as well as an efficient algorithm to compute the optimal beamforming matrix based on convex optimization techniques. Low-complexity suboptimal relay beamforming schemes are also presented, and their achievable rates are compared against the capacity with the optimal scheme.     

非理想SIC下全双工NOMA系统的安全性能分析

针对存在多个非共谋窃听者,研究了一种基于全双工中继和两阶段中继选择（TSRS）的非正交多址接入（NOMA）物理层安全通信方案。每个通信过程包含一个传输时隙,系统在每个时隙开始由TSRS策略选择最优中继,所选中继在从源节点接收NOMA叠加信号的同时,向两个目的节点转发上一时隙的再编码叠加信号,两个目的节点采用串行干扰消除（SIC）技术从中继叠加信号中解码获取各自的期望信号。推导了非理想SIC下系统安全中断概率的近似表达式,进行了蒙特卡洛（Monte-Carlo）仿真验证,同时分析了各仿真参数（SIC残余干扰系数、目标安全速率、中继规模等）与系统安全中断概率的关系。理论分析与模拟仿真的结果表明,全双工技术与TSRS的结合方案能有效提升系统的安全中断性能。将该方案应用于实际通信系统设计时,选择合适传输信噪比（SNR）、提高串行干扰消除能力或适当增加中继数量均可实现更好的保密性能。     

Decode and forward polar coding for Half-duplex two-relay channels based on multilevel construction

Polar codes represent an emerging class of error-correcting codes with power to approach the capacity of the physically degraded relay channel and relevant coding schemes have been proposed in the literature. This paper aims to design new cooperative decode-and-forward (DF) polar coding schemes for half-duplex two-relay channel based on the Plotkin’s construction illustrating their performances gain. In these schemes, we consider the use of time-division process in transmission. The source node transmits its polar-coded information to both relays and the destination nodes during the first time slot. Each relay node receives the data from the source and processes it using the DF protocol. For the second transmission period, each relay first decodes the source signal then after reconstruction of the information reduction matrix based on the multilevel characteristics of polar codes, the extracted data at each relay are recoded using another polar code and transmitted to the destination. At destination node, the signals received from each relay and source nodes are processed by using multi-joint successive cancellation decoding for retrieving the original information bits. We demonstrate via simulation results that by carefully constructed polarisation matrix at each relay node, we can achieve the theoretical capacity in the half-duplex relay channel.     

Simultaneous energy harvesting and information processing in wireless multiple relays with multiple antennas

Wireless networks suffer from battery discharging specially in cooperative communications when multiple relays have an important role but they are energy constrained. To overcome this problem, energy harvesting from radio frequency signals is applied to charge the node battery. These intermediate nodes have the ability to harvest energy from the source signal and use the energy harvested to transmit information to the destination. In fact, the node tries to harvest energy and then transmit the data to destination. Division of energy harvesting and data transmission can be done in two algorithms: time-switching-based relaying protocol and power-splitting-based relaying protocol. These two algorithms also can be applied in delay-limited and delay-tolerant transmission systems. The previous works have assumed a single relay for energy harvesting, but in this article, the proposed method is concentrated on improving the outage probability and throughput by using multiple antennas in each relay node instead of using single antenna. According to our simulation results, when using multi-antenna relays, ability of energy harvesting is increased and thus system performance will be improved to great extent. Maximum ratio combining scheme has been used when the destination chooses the best signal of relays and antennas satisfying the required signal-to-noise ratio.     

Relay-Assisted Decorrelating Multiuser Detector (RAD-MUD) for Cooperative CDMA Networks

In this paper, we examine the uplink of a cooperative CDMA network, where users cooperate by relaying each other's messages to the base station. When spreading waveforms are not orthogonal, multiple access interference (MAI) exists at the relays and the destination, causing cooperative diversity gains to diminish. To address this issue, we adopt the multiuser detection (MUD) technique to mitigate MAI in achieving the full advantages of cooperation. Specifically, the relay-assisted decorrelating multiuser detector (RAD-MUD) is proposed to separate interfering signals at the destination with the help of preceding at the relays along with pre-whitening at the destination. Unlike the conventional zero-forcing (ZF) precoder or the decorrelating MUD, the proposed RAD-MUD experiences neither power expansion at the relays nor noise amplification at the destination. Three cooperative transmission strategies are considered on top of RAD-MUD; namely, transmit beamforming, selective relaying and distributed space-time coding. Since the reliability of each source-relay and/or relay-destination links are different, relay transmissions are weighted accordingly in our schemes to further combat MAI. The advantages of RAD-MUD over ZF precoding and other existing cooperative MUD schemes are shown through computer simulations.     

接收端配备滤波器的分布式波束形成技术

基于频率选择性信道中由一个发射节点、一个目标节点和多个中继节点构成的中继网络,该文提出一种新型的分布式波束形成技术。该技术除了在中继节点上采用滤波而后转发的中继数据中转策略之外,在接收节点也配备一个有限长响应(Finite Impulse Response, FIR)滤波器,共同均衡发射节点与中继节点以及中继节点与接收节点之间的频率选择性信道。该文中,此两种滤波器将得到联合优化以提高接收节点的服务质量,并同时满足中继节点的发射功率限制。仿真结果表明,相较于放大而后转发以及滤波而后转发但无接收滤波器的波束形成器而言,所提波束形成技术极大地提高了频率选择性信道中中继网络的性能。     

Outage Probability Based Robust Distributed Beam-Forming in Multi-User Cooperative Networks with Imperfect CSI

In this paper, a new robust problem is proposed for relay beamforming in relay system with stochastic perturbation on channels of multi user and relay network. The robust problem aims to minimize the transmission power of relay nodes while the imperfect channel information (CSI) injects stochastic channel uncertainties to the parameters of optimization problem. In the power minimization framework, the relays amplification weights and phases are optimized assuming the availability of Gaussian channel distribution. The power sum of all relays is minimized while the outage probability of the instantaneous capacity (or SINR) at each link is above the outage capacity (or SINR) for each user. The robust problem is a nonconvex SDP problem with Rank constraint. Due to the nonconvexity of the original problem, three suboptimal problems are proposed. Simulation and numerical results are presented to compare the performance of the three proposed solutions with the existing worst case robust method.     

Relay Subset Selection in Wireless Networks Using Partial Decode-and-Forward Transmission

This paper considers the problem of selecting a subset of nodes in a two-hop wireless network to act as relays in aiding the communication between the source–destination pair. Optimal relay subset selection with the objective of maximizing the overall throughput is a difficult problem that depends on multiple factors, including node locations, queue lengths, and power consumption. A partial decode-and-forward strategy is applied in this paper to improve the tractability of the relay selection problem and the performance of the overall network. Note that the number of relays that are selected ultimately determines the performance of the network. This paper benchmarks this performance by determining the net diversity that is achieved using the relays that are selected and the partial decode-and-forward strategy. This framework is subsequently used to further transform relay selection into a simpler relay placement problem, and two proximity-based approximation algorithms are developed to determine the appropriate set of relays to be selected in the network. Other selection strategies, such as random relay selection and a greedy algorithm that relies on channel state information, are also presented. This paper concludes by showing that the proposed proximity-based relay selection strategies yield near-optimal expected rates for a small number of selected relays.      

Two-way cooperative communications with statistical channel knowledge

We consider the problem of distributed beamforming for a two-way relay network which consists of two transceivers and multiple relay nodes. The main assumption in this work, which differentiates it from previously reported results, is that one of the transceivers is assumed to have only statistical information about channels between the other transceiver and the relay nodes. This assumption imposes less stringent restrictions on the bandwidth required to obtain channel state information via training. Based on this statistical modeling, we propose to use a chance-constrained programming approach to design a distributed beamforming algorithm. In this approach, we aim to minimize the total transmit power (consumed in the entire network) as perceived by one of the transceivers, subject to two probabilistic constraints. These constraints guarantee that the outage probability of the transceivers' received SNRs, as perceived by the master transceiver, is not less than certain given thresholds. We prove rigorously that such an approach leads to a relay selection algorithm where the relay with the strongest channel coefficient to the master transceiver participates in relaying and the remaining relays are shut off. As such, the optimal distributed beamforming algorithm is simplified to a power control solution. Closed-form solution to this problem is obtained and its performance is evaluated through numerical examples.