Bandwidth allocation and distributed relay selection for multiple‐user and multiple‐relay cooperative systems using Stackelberg game

Cooperative communication is an ongoing research area which lies on the basic idea of transmission of information from the transmitter to the receiver with the assistance of a virtual array of relay nodes in between, which will eventually provide the spatial diversity. This paper deals with the resource allocation (bandwidth in this case) among multiple users (source‐ destination pairs) in a cooperative communication environment along with the relay selection when there are multiple relay nodes to assist the transmitting nodes to pass on their data signal to respective receivers. A multi‐user, multi‐relay system model is considered here on which Amplify‐and‐Forward relaying scheme is applied. The bandwidth allocation and relay selection are done based on the Stackelberg game according to which transmitting nodes are treated as purchasers and relaying nodes are treated as vendors. By this planned approach, the transmitting nodes can discover the relays at comparatively better positions and can purchase the optimal bandwidth from those helping relays. By this approach, the relays which are competing with each other can increase their own utilities by demanding the optimal prices and the multiple users which are competing with each other can maximize their own utilities by demanding the optimal bandwidths. Distributed relay selection scheme is applied here which does not require precise information of channel state information as opposed to Centralized scheme and it gives comparable results, too.     

Protocol design and data detection for two‐way relay networks with fractional asynchronous delays

In wireless two‐way relay systems, it is difficult to achieve perfect timing synchronization among different nodes. In this paper, we investigate relaying protocol design and data detect schemes for asynchronous two‐way relaying systems to combat the intersymbol interference caused by asynchronous transmission. We consider fractional asynchronous delays and two schemes are proposed based on cyclic prefixed single carrier block transmission, namely, the receiver frequency domain equalization scheme and relay synchronization and network coding (RSNC) scheme. In the receiver frequency domain equalization scheme, the relay simply amplifies the received signal and forwards to the two source nodes, and fractionally spaced frequency domain equalizer (FS‐FDE) is employed at the receiver to recover the transmit data. In the RSNC scheme, the asynchronous signals are resynchronized with an FS‐FDE at the relay node. The output signals of FS‐FDE are then demodulated and network coded before forwarding to the two source nodes. In this RSNC scheme, data detection at the source nodes is the same as that in synchronous networks because the asynchronous signals have already been synchronized at the relay node. Simulation results show that the performance of both schemes is almost the same as in the perfect synchronized two‐way relaying systems. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Impact of Implicit Feedback Channel in Cooperative Relay Networks

In a multi-node network, cooperation among nodes is an effective means to enhance coverage and potentially increase the capacity. For such systems, schemes based on incremental relaying have great potential to improve the spectral efficiency by adapting the transmission to time varying channel conditions. The performance enhancement brought about by the presence of relays in such incremental relaying based cooperative systems is dependent on the level of cooperation (based on the relay information quality) and on coordination among the nodes. Coordination is achieved through the use of feedback channels, which incurs significant bandwidth penalty and brings down the spectral efficiency. In order to mitigate this, one can exploit an implicit feedback channel available due to broadcast nature of relay transmissions. Instead of using dedicated feedback channels, the implicit feedback channel is used to measure the relay information quality. Based on this information, the transmitter (source/relay) for the additional coded (redundancy) bits is determined. Such a mechanism enhances the reliability as it ensures the availability of correct information at the destination node for decoding. This paper studies the impact of such an implicit feedback channel by employing powerful codes which exhibit inherent incremental redundancy features, such as rate-compatible codes (rate-compatible punctured convolutional (RCPC) codes and punctured low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes) and rateless codes (Luby Transform (LT) codes). Theoretical analyses of the proposed scheme are presented, and supported with results from extensive simulation studies.     

Power allocation and relay selection for AF two‐path successive relaying networks

Two‐path or successive relaying, which aims to establish two relay links transmitting different information symbols in adjacent time slots, has recently emerged as an attractive wireless communication protocol to improve the spectral efficiency in half‐duplex cooperative systems. In this paper, we investigate power allocation and relay selection techniques for amplify‐and‐forward two‐path successive relaying networks. Our approach is based on the maximization of the received SNR subject to a total power budget consumed by the source and the relay assisting this specific transmission. Two scenarios including with and without direct link are considered here. We show that the main problem has a closed‐form solution and only requires a few amounts of feedback bits to be broadcasted. Numerical results reveal that the proposed approaches are more insensitive to the inter‐relay interference and robust to channel estimation errors; meanwhile, they perform better than the existing schemes. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Distributed simultaneous wireless information and power transfer in multiuser amplify‐and‐forward ad hoc wireless networks

This paper studies the problem of stable node matching for distributed simultaneous wireless information and power transfer in multiuser amplify‐and‐forward ad hoc wireless networks. Particularly, each source node aims to be paired with another node that takes the role of an amplify‐and‐forward relay to forward its signal to the destination, such that the achievable rate is improved, in return of some payment made to the relaying node. Each relaying node splits its received signal from its respective source into two parts: one for information processing and the other for energy harvesting. In turn, a matching‐theoretic solution based on the one‐to‐one stable marriage matching game is studied, and a distributed polynomial‐time complexity algorithm is proposed to pair each source node with its best potential relaying node based on the power‐splitting ratios, such that their utilities or payments are maximized while achieving network stability. For comparison purposes, an algorithm to enumerate all possible stable matchings is also devised to study the impact of different matchings on the source and relay utilities. Simulation results are presented to validate the proposed matching algorithm and illustrate that it yields sum‐utility and sum‐payment that are closely comparable to those of centralized power allocation and node pairing, with the added merits of low complexity, truth telling, and network stability.     

A bandwidth‐efficient cooperative relaying scheme with hard interference cancellation and iterative decoding

This paper considers a coded cooperative relaying scheme in which all successfully decoded signals from multiple sources are simultaneously forwarded by a multi‐antenna relay to a common multi‐antenna destination to increase bandwidth efficiency. Iterative decoding with hard interference cancellation is used at destination to recover user information. By using orthogonal transmission from sources to avoid their mutual interference, the multi‐antenna relay offers receive space diversity that greatly enhances the decoding performance at the relay. This makes the source‐relay transmission more robust, less sensitive to the source‐relay link SNR, and hence increases the contribution of the relay in cooperative transmission. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme significantly outperforms direct transmission under the same transmit power and bandwidth efficiency. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Resource allocations in relay‐assisted cellular networks

In a relay‐assisted cellular network, the transmission mode (either direct transmission or relaying) and the transmit power of the source and relay nodes affect not only transmission rates of individual links but also the rates of other links sharing the same channel. In this paper, we propose a cross‐layer design that jointly considers the transmission mode/relay node selection (MRS) with power allocation (PA) to optimize the system rate. We first formulate an optimization problem for a cellular system, where the same frequency channel can be reused in different cells. A low complexity heuristic MRS scheme is proposed on the basis of the link and interference conditions of the source and potential relay nodes. Given the transmission mode and relay node (if the relaying mode is chosen) of each link, the transmit power of the source and relay nodes can be solved by geometric programming. This method for MRS and PA can achieve a close‐to‐optimum performance, but implementing the PA requires heavy signalling exchanged among cells. To reduce the signalling overheads, we finally proposed a heuristic and distributed method for MRS and PA inspired by some asymptotic analysis. Numerical results are conducted to demonstrate the rate performance of the proposed methods.Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Achievable sum‐rate maximization using relay/antenna selection for MIMO two‐way AF relaying with channel uncertainties

This paper focuses on the layered relay‐and‐antenna selection (LRAS) for achievable sum‐rate (ASR) maximization while considering the impacts of residual self‐interference due to channel estimation errors in multiple‐input multiple‐output two‐way amplify‐and‐forward relaying systems. Two LRAS algorithms, namely, the Gram–Schmidt and the adaptive discrete stochastic approximation selection techniques, are investigated based on the ASR maximization under an equal power allocation. To alleviate the complexity burden of the LRAS strategies, the optimal relay and the subset of transmit‐and‐receive antenna pairs are determined by a two‐stage selection mechanism. By taking two LRAS strategies and correlated channel uncertainties into account, the development of a two‐way multiple‐input multiple‐output multi‐amplify‐and‐forward‐relay system is able to provide improved robustness against the channel state information mismatch and the residual self‐interference. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Differential space–time network coding in MIMO two‐way relay channel network

This paper focuses on noncoherent detection scheme for multiple‐input multiple‐output two‐way relay channel network with two two‐antennas source nodes and one single‐antenna relay node. An orthogonal differential space–time network coding (ODSTNC) scheme based on relay detection and forward protocol is proposed. The proposed scheme combines space–time coding with network coding, and the differential modulation and detection are used in both multiple access stage and broadcast stage. The multiple‐symbol differential detection is employed at the relay. The maximum likelihood decision and its low‐complexity sphere decoding decision are given. The upper and lower bounds on the average symbol error probability for this system under differential binary phase shift keying (DBPSK) are derived, and a diversity order of 2 is confirmed to be achieved. The simulation results show that the ODSTNC scheme has good performance, and it is available for the applications of far distance signal transmission between two terminals where channel state information is unknown. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Energy‐Aware Hybrid Cooperative Relaying with Asymmetric Traffic

In this paper, we study an asymmetric two‐way relaying network where two source nodes intend to exchange information with the help of multiple relay nodes. A hybrid time‐division broadcast relaying scheme with joint relay selection (RS) and power allocation (PA) is proposed to realize energy‐efficient transmission. Our scheme is based on the asymmetric level of the two source nodes’ target signal‐to‐noise ratio indexes to minimize the total power consumed by the relay nodes. An optimization model with joint RS and PA is studied here to guarantee hybrid relaying transmissions. Next, with the aid of our proposed intelligent optimization algorithm, which combines a genetic algorithm and a simulated annealing algorithm, the formulated optimization model can be effectively solved. Theoretical analyses and numerical results verify that our proposed hybrid relaying scheme can substantially reduce the total power consumption of relays under a traffic asymmetric scenario; meanwhile, the proposed intelligent optimization algorithm can eventually converge to a better solution.     

一种信道编码与物理层网络编码的联合设计

基于正交振幅调制（QAM）设计了一种信道编码与物理层网络编码的联合实施方案,该方案巧妙的引入了一种去噪映射机制,即重新安排QAM调制的星座映射,中继节点对接收数据去噪后直接映射为对应数字比特流的异或。同时,利用卷积码和MAC-XOR网络编码（Network Coding, NC）的线性性质,使得中继节点只需直接估计网络编码的码字,因此中继节点的解调/译码的复杂度减少50%。在此基础上对该方案的误比特率性能进行分析。仿真结果表明了该方案的有效性,即与已有的物理层网络编码方法相比,在没有增加译码复杂度的基础上,该方案的信道容量有了显著提高。      

Enhancing secrecy capacity of multi‐relay wiretap systems with partial channel state information

Distributed precoding has provento be capable of enhancing the secrecy capacity of the multi‐relay wiretap system. An iterative distributed precoding and channel state information (CSI) sharing scheme can be used to reduce the CSI overhead at each relay node. However, in practical applications, the CSI of each relay node cannot be perfectly known to themselves, especially that of the relay‐eavesdropper channels. Thus, partial CSI for the relay‐eavesdropper links is assumed, and the corresponding distributed precoding and CSI sharing schemes are investigated. Under the assumption that the average value of the relay‐eavesdropper channel is known at each relay node, an extended iterative distributed precoding and CSI sharing scheme is proposed. Simulation results demonstrate that with the increase of the power ratio of the constant part to the random part of the relay‐eavesdropper channels, the proposed scheme with partial CSI performs increasingly close to the one with perfect CSI in secrecy capacity. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A two‐hop equalize‐and‐forward relay scheme in OFDM‐based wireless networks over multipath channels

Relay communications have attracted increasing research attentions as a cost‐effective technique to improve spatial diversity, service coverage, and energy efficiency in wireless networks. However, existing relay schemes (e.g., amplify‐and‐forward and decode‐and‐forward (DF) schemes) still face several major challenges, particularly the accumulation of multipath channels effect in AF and long processing latency in DF. To address these issues, we propose a novel equalize‐and‐forward (EF) relay scheme to enhance the retransmission reliability while maintaining low processing delay at the relay node. In particular, the proposed EF relay estimates and equalizes the channel between source and relay to eliminate the channel accumulation effect without signal regeneration. To further reduce the relay processing time, the channel estimation and equalization in the proposed EF design are performed in parallel. The proposed equalization is realized by presetting the equalizer coefficients with the current channel response that is predicted in parallel using multiple past channel responses. Numerical results show that the proposed EF relay scheme can achieve comparable symbol error rate performance as the DF relay with much less relay latency. In addition, the EF relay exhibits low outage probability at the same data rate as compared with traditional amplify‐and‐forward and DF schemes. schemes. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd     

Optimal Amplify‐and‐Forward Scheme for Parallel Relay Networks with Correlated Relay Noise

This paper studies a parallel relay network where the relays employ an amplify‐and‐forward (AF) relaying scheme and are subjected to individual power constraints. We consider correlated effective relay noise arising from practical scenarios when the relays are exposed to common interferers. Assuming that the noise covariance and the full channel state information are available, we investigate the problem of finding the optimal AF scheme in terms of maximum end‐to‐end transmission rate. It is shown that the maximization problem can be equivalently transformed to a convex semi‐definite program, which can be efficiently solved. Then an upper bound on the maximum achievable AF rate of this network is provided to further evaluate the performance of the optimal AF scheme. It is proved that the upper bound can be asymptotically achieved in two special regimes when the transmit power of the source node or the relays is sufficiently large. Finally, both theoretical and numerical results are given to show that, on average, noise correlation is beneficial to the transmission rate — whether the relays know the noise covariance matrix or not.     

Hybrid channel estimation for MIMO relay systems with Doppler offset influences

The design of the channel estimation method in a multiple‐input multiple‐output (MIMO) relay system plays a highly crucial role in deciding the overall system performance. For the realistic scenarios specifically, with fast time‐varying channel conditions due to highly mobile communicating nodes, the degree of accuracy to which the channel estimates are obtained for MIMO relay systems influences the communication system reliability significantly. However, most of the channel estimation approaches proposed in literature for MIMO relay systems assume that the Doppler offset contributed by highly mobile nodes is already known to the receiver, ignoring the resulting nonlinear system dynamics. Hence, a novel hybrid algorithm is proposed to address the issue of time‐varying channel estimation under fast‐fading channel condition with Doppler offset influences contributed by high‐mobility communicating nodes for a 1‐way 2‐hop MIMO amplify‐and‐forward relaying system. The problem is first formulated as a nonlinear state‐space model, and then an algorithm is developed to estimate the individual source‐to‐relay and relay‐to‐destination channels in the presence of the associated dynamic Doppler offset. In the proposed method, a set of superimposed orthogonal pilots is used for aiding in the updation of the channel gains, since Kalman filter–based updation may lead to accumulation of estimation and prediction error. A detailed computational complexity analysis of the proposed hybrid algorithm is presented, which shows that the algorithm has moderate computational complexity with a good performance in fast time‐varying channel conditions with high node mobility in a dual‐hop MIMO relay system.     

General switch‐and‐examine relaying for demodulate‐and‐forward cooperative diversity

Two new demodulate‐and‐forward schemes of multi‐relay cooperative diversity with switch‐and‐examine relaying (SER) are analyzed. To reduce relay usage and enhance bandwidth efficiency, the two new cooperative diversity schemes employ a switch‐based relay selection. The proposed schemes consume less communication resource than regular relaying schemes, such as the selection combining (SC) or maximal ratio combining (MRC) schemes that always use all relays, and also achieve better performance than distributed switch‐and‐stay schemes. In the first scheme, the decision statistic for relay usage and selection is based on the signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR). In the second scheme, the log‐likelihood ratio (LLR) of received signals is used for the decision of relay usage and selection. With the two SER schemes, the bit error probability (BEP) of binary phase shift keying (BPSK) and the average number of used paths are derived and expressed in closed‐form for the independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) Rayleigh fading channels. Numerical and simulation results are presented for performance illustrations. According to the numerical results, the LLR‐based SER not only achieves a lower BEP but also consumes less relay resource than the SNR‐based SER. Furthermore, the LLR‐based SER scheme even outperforms the corresponding SNR‐based SC scheme for a range of average SNR. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exact SEP and performance bounds for orthogonal space‐time block codes in cooperative multiantenna AF relaying networks

In this paper, we derive a moment generating function (MGF) for dual‐hop (DH) amplify‐and‐forward (AF) relaying networks, in which all nodes have an arbitrary number of antennas, with orthogonal space‐time block code (OSTBC) transmissions over Rayleigh fading channels. We present an exact error rate expression based on the derived MGF and another analytical approach to derive achievable performance bounds as closed‐forms of symbol error rate, outage probability, and normalized channel capacity. Furthermore, we derive the asymptotic behavior of symbol error rate and outage probability. From this asymptotic behavior, it is shown that the diversity order and its dependence on antenna configurations can be explicitly determined. Simulation results are also presented to verify their accuracy by comparing with numerical results and to provide an insight to the relationship between relaying networks' antenna configuration and diversity order. It is confirmed that the transmit antenna gain of the source node and the receive antenna gain of the relay node can be obtained only when the relay is close to the destination, and then, the transmit antenna gain of the relay node and the receive antenna gain of the destination node can be obtained only when the relay is close to the source.     

Performance analysis of opportunistic nonregenerative relaying

Opportunistic relaying in cooperative communication depends on careful relay selection. However, the traditional centralized method used for opportunistic amplify‐and‐forward protocols requires precise measurements of channel state information at the destination. In this paper, we adopt the max–min criterion as a relay selection framework for opportunistic amplify‐and‐forward cooperative communications, which was exhaustively used for the decode‐and‐forward protocol, and offer an accurate performance analysis based on exact statistics of the local signal‐to‐noise ratios of the best relay. Furthermore, we evaluate the asymptotical performance and deduce the diversity order of our proposed scheme. Finally, we validate our analysis by showing that performance simulation results coincide with our analytical results over Rayleigh fading channels, and we compare the max–min relay selection with their centralized channel state information‐based and partial relay selection counterparts. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Expectation–maximization‐based joint data detection and channel estimation for a cellular multi‐carrier code division multiple access network using single‐hop relaying

This paper is concerned with channel estimation and data detection for a cellular multi‐carrier code division multiple access network using single‐hop relaying in the presence of frequency selective fading channels. The proposed expectation–maximization (EM) algorithm was used to jointly estimate both the coefficients of the channel between a relay and a base station and the data. EM algorithm is particularly suited to multi‐carrier code division multiple access systems because they have multi‐carrier signal format. The considered network uses single‐hop relaying technique to provide a higher quality transmission to the users with low quality channels. The base station (managing mechanism) gives them an opportunity to send their messages via the users with high quality channels in a time sharing mode. The performance of the proposed EM algorithm, with and without hopping and with cooperative communication technique, was analyzed by a computer simulation, and the results are presented. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An opportunistic relaying‐based incremental hybrid DAF cooperative system

In this paper, an opportunistic relaying‐based incremental hybrid decode‐amplify‐forward (OR‐IHDAF) scheme that combines robust protocol switch with efficient relay selection is proposed in multi‐relay scenario to cope with the complex and variable channel environments. The proposed OR‐IHDAF scheme can improve the system performance significantly compared with the incremental hybrid decode‐amplify‐forward protocol with the increase of the possible candidate relay nodes and opportunistic relay selection. The analytical expression of the system outage probability of the OR‐IHDAF scheme is presented based on the probability density function and cumulative distribution function, which might be useful to avoid lengthy simulations. Numerical results show the correctness of our theoretical analysis and the performance improvement of the OR‐IHDAF scheme compared with the other current hybrid cooperative protocols and OR‐based cooperative schemes. The effects of the power allocation schemes on the outage probability are also provided. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.