Collision resolving relay selection in large-scale blind relay networks

Optimal relay selection in large-scale networks is a difficult task since the network is usually considered as blind due to the high volume and collection difficulty of the relays’ information. In this paper, we develop a collision resolving relay selection (CReS) scheme that achieves the optimal relay from a random set of candidates without the previous knowledge of any individual relay. By introducing stochastic geometry based quality-of-service region, the relation between the distribution of the available relay number and the transmission request is established. Furthermore, the selection phase of the CReS scheme is divided into two sub-phases according to different distributions of the relay number in boundless and bounded regions. A switch rule is proposed when several relays collide in the first sub-phase, followed by the second sub-phase to resolve the collision with the splitting algorithm. The optimal solution that requires minimum selection slots for all sub-phases is derived. In addition, a sub-optimal solution is also explored to reduce the computational complexity. The scheme shows a better applicability than conventional information-based schemes in view of its little information requirement when dealing with large-scale relay allocation problems.