An Efficient Adaptive Distributed Space-Time Coding Scheme for Cooperative Relaying

A non-regenerative dual-hop wireless system based on a distributed space-time coding strategy is considered. It is assumed that each relay retransmits an appropriately scaled space-time coded version of its received signal. The main goal of this paper is to investigate a power allocation strategy in relay stations, which is based on minimizing the outage probability. In the high signal-to-noise ratio regime for the relay-destination link, it is shown that a threshold-based power allocation scheme (i.e., the relay remains silent if its channel gain with the source is less than a prespecified threshold) is optimum. Monte-Carlo simulations show that the derived on-off power allocation scheme performs close to optimum for finite signal-to-noise ratio values. Numerical results demonstrate a dramatic improvement in system performance as compared to the case that the relay stations forward their received signals with full power. In addition, a hybrid amplify-and-forward/detect-and-forward scheme is proposed for the case that the quality of the source-relay link is good. Finally, the robustness of the proposed scheme in the presence of channel estimation errors is numerically evaluated.Comment: submitted to IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications (24 pages

Performance Analysis, Resource Allocation and Optimization of Cooperative Communication Systems under Generalized Fading Channels

The increasing demands for high-speed data transmission, efficient wireless access, high quality of service (QoS) and reliable network coverage with reduced power consumption impose demanding intensive research efforts on the design of novel wireless communication system architectures. A notable development in the area of communication theory is the introduction of cooperative communication systems. These technologies become promising solution for the next-generation wireless transmission systems due to their applicability in size, power, hardware and price constrained devices, such as cellular mobile devices, wireless sensors, ad-hoc networks and military communications, being able to provide, e.g., diversity gain against fading channels without the need for installing multiple antennas in a single terminal. The performance of the cooperative systems can in general be significantly increased by allocating the limited power efficiently. In this thesis, we address in detail the performance analysis, resource allocation and optimization of such cooperative communication systems under generalized fading channels. We focus first on energy-efficiency (EE) optimization and optimal power allocation (OPA) of regenerative cooperative network with spatial correlation effects under given power constraint and QoS requirement. The thesis also investigates the end-to-end performance and power allocation of a regenerative multi-relay cooperative network over non-homogeneous scattering environment, which is realistic case in practical wireless communication scenarios. Furthermore, the study investigates the end-to-end performance, OPA and energy optimization analysis under total power constraint and performance requirement of full-duplex (FD) relaying transmission scheme over asymmetric generalized fading models with relay self-interference (SI) effects.The study first focuses on exact error analysis and EE optimization of regenerative relay systems under spatial correlation effects. It first derives novel exact and asymptotic expressions for the symbol-error-rates (SERs) of M -ary quadrature amplitude and M -ary phase-shift keying (M -QAM) and (M -PSK) modulations, respectively, assuming a dual-hop decode-and-forward relay system, spatial correlation, path-loss effects and maximum-ratio-combing (MRC) at the destination. Based on this, EEoptimization and OPA are carried out under certain QoS requirement and transmit power constraints.Furthermore, the second part of the study investigates the end-to-end performance and power allocation of MRC based regenerative multi-relay cooperative system over non-homogeneous scattering environment. Novel exact and asymptotic expressions are derived for the end-to-end average SER for M -QAM and M -PSK modulations.The offered results are employed in performance investigations and power allocation formulations under total transmit power constraints.Finally, the thesis investigates outage performance, OPA and energy optimization analysis under certain system constraints for the FD and half-duplex (HD) relaying systems. Unlike the previous studies that considered the scenario of information transmission over symmetric fading conditions, in this study we considered the scenario of information transmission over the most generalized asymmetric fading environments.The obtained results indicate that depending on the severity of multipath fading, the spatial correlation between the direct and relayed paths and the relay location, the direct transmission is more energy-efficient only for rather short transmission distances and until a certain threshold. Beyond this, the system benefits substantially from the cooperative transmission approach where the cooperation gain increases as the transmission distance increases. Furthermore, the investigations on the power allocation for the multi-relay system over the generalized small-scale fading model show that substantial performance gain can be achieved by the proposed power allocation scheme over the conventional equal power allocation (EPA) scheme when the source-relay and relay-destination paths are highly unbalanced. Extensive studies on the FD relay system also show that OPA provides significant performance gain over the EPA scheme when the relay SI level is relatively strong. In addition, it is shown that the FD relaying scheme is more energy-efficient than the reference HD relaying scheme at long transmission distances and for moderate relay SI levels.In general, the investigations in this thesis provide tools, results and useful insights for implementing space-efficient, low-cost and energy-efficient cooperative networks, specifically, towards the future green communication era where the optimization of the scarce resources is critical

Contributions to the Performance Analysis of Intervehicular Communications Systems and Schemes

RÉSUMÉ Le but des systèmes de communication intervéhicule (Inter-Vehicle Communication – IVC) est d'améliorer la sécurité de conduite en utilisant des capteurs et des techniques de communication sans fil pour être en mesure de communiquer mutuellement sans aucune intervention extérieure. Avec l'utilisation de ces systèmes, les communications véhicule à véhicule (V2V) peuvent être plus efficaces dans la prévention des accidents et la décongestion de la circulation que si chaque véhicule travaillait individuellement. Une des solutions proposées pour les systèmes IVC est l’utilisation des systèmes de communication coopérative, qui en principe, augmentent l'efficacité spectrale et énergétique, la couverture du réseau, et réduit la probabilité de défaillance. La diversité d'antenne (entrées multiples sorties multiples « Multiple-Input Multiple-Output » ou MIMO) peut également être une alternative pour les systèmes IVC pour améliorer la capacité du canal et la diversité (fiabilité), mais en échange d’une complexité accrue. Toutefois, l'application de telles solutions est difficile, car les communications sans fil entre les véhicules sont soumises à d’importants effets d'évanouissements des canaux appelés (canaux sujets aux évanouissements de n*Rayleigh, « n*Rayleigh fading channels»), ce qui conduit à la dégradation des performances. Par conséquent, dans cette thèse, nous proposons une analyse de la performance globale des systèmes de transmission coopératifs et MIMO sur des canaux sujets aux évanouissements de n*Rayleigh. Cette analyse permettra d’aider les chercheurs pour la conception et la mise en œuvre de systèmes de communication V2V avec une complexité moindre. En particulier, nous étudions d'abord la performance de la sélection du relais de coopération avec les systèmes IVC, on suppose que la transmission via « Amplify-and-Forward» (AF) ou bien «Decode-and-Forward» (DF) est assurée par N relais pour transférer le message de la source à la destination. La performance du système est analysée en termes de probabilité de défaillance, la probabilité d'erreur de symbole, et la capacité moyenne du canal. Les résultats numériques démontrent que la sélection de relais réalise une diversité de l'ordre de (d≈mN/n) pour les deux types de relais, où m est un paramètre évanouissement de Rayleigh en cascade. Nous étudions ensuite la performance des systèmes IVC à sauts multiples avec et sans relais régénératifs. Dans cette étude, nous dérivons des expressions approximatives pour la probabilité de défaillance et le niveau d’évanouissement lorsque la diversité en réception basée sur le ratio maximum de combinaison (MRC) est employée. En outre, nous analysons la répartition de puissance pour le système sous-jacent afin de minimiser la probabilité globale de défaillance. Nous montrons que la performance des systèmes régénératifs est meilleure que celle des systèmes non régénératifs lorsque l’ordre de cascade n est faible, tandis qu’ils ont des performances similaires lorsque n est élevé. Ensuite, nous considérons le problème de la détection de puissance des signaux inconnus aux n* canaux de Rayleigh. Dans ce travail, de nouvelles expressions approximatives sont dérivées de la probabilité de détection moyenne avec et sans diversité en réception MRC. En outre, la performance du système est analysée lorsque la détection de spectre coopérative (CSS) est considérée sous diverses contraintes de canaux (par exemple, les canaux de communication parfaits et imparfaits). Les résultats numériques ont montré que la fiabilité de détection diminue à mesure que l'ordre n augmente et s’améliore sensiblement lorsque CSS emploie le schéma MRC. Il est démontré que CSS avec le schéma MRC maintient la probabilité de fausse alarme minimale dans les canaux d’information imparfaite plutôt que d'augmenter le nombre d'utilisateurs en coopération. Enfin, nous présentons une nouvelle approche pour l'analyse des performances des systèmes IVC sur n*canaux de Rayleigh, en utilisant n_T antennes d'émission et n_R antennes de réception pour lutter contre l'effet d’évanouissement. Dans ce contexte, nous évaluons la performance des systèmes MIMO-V2V basés sur la sélection des antennes d'émission avec un ratio maximum de combinaison (TAS/MRC) et la sélection combinant (TAS/SC). Dans cette étude, nous dérivons des expressions analytiques plus précises pour la probabilité de défaillance, la probabilité d'erreur de symbole, et l’évanouissement sur n*canaux Rayleigh. Il est montré que les deux régimes ont le même ordre de diversité maximale équivalent à (d≈mn_T n_R /n) . En outre, TAS / MRC offre un gain de performance mieux que TAS/ SC lorsque le nombre d'antennes de réception est plus que celle des antennes d’émission, mais l’amélioration de la performance est limitée lorsque n augmente.----------Abstract The purpose of intervehicular communication (IVC) systems is to enhance driving safety, in which vehicles use sensors and wireless communication techniques to talk to each other without any roadside intervention. Using these systems, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications can be more effective in avoiding accidents and traffic congestion than if each vehicle works individually. A potential solution can be implemented in this research area using cooperative communications systems which, in principle, increase spectral and power efficiency, network coverage, and reduce the outage probability. Antenna diversity (i.e., multiple-input multiple output (MIMO) systems) can also be an alternative solution for IVC systems to enhance channel capacity and diversity (reliability) but in exchange of an increased complexity. However, applying such solutions is challenging since wireless communications among vehicles is subject to harsh fading channels called ‘n*Rayleigh fading channels’, which leads to performance degradation. Therefore, in this thesis we provide a comprehensive performance analysis of cooperative transmission and MIMO systems over n*Rayleigh fading channels that help researchers for the design and implementation of V2V communication systems with lower complexity. Specifically, we first investigate the performance of cooperative IVC systems with relay selection over n*Rayleigh fading channels, assuming that both the decode-and-forward and the amplify-and-forward relaying protocols are achieved by N relays to transfer the source message to the destination. System performance is analyzed in terms of outage probability, symbol error probability, and average channel capacity. The numerical results have shown that the best relay selection approach achieves the diversity order of (d≈mN/n) where m is a cascaded Rayleigh fading parameter. Second, we investigate the performance of multihop-IVC systems with regenerative and non-regenerative relays. In this study, we derive approximate closed-form expressions for the outage probability and amount of fading when the maximum ratio combining (MRC) diversity reception is employed. Further, we analyze the power allocation for the underlying scheme in order to minimize the overall outage probability. We show that the performance of regenerative systems is better than that of non-regenerative systems when the cascading order n is low and they have similar performance when n is high. Third, we consider the problem of energy detection of unknown signals over n*Rayleigh fading channels. In this work, novel approximate expressions are derived for the average probability of detection with and without MRC diversity reception. Moreover, the system performance is analyzed when cooperative spectrum sensing (CSS) is considered under various channel constraints (e.g, perfect and imperfect reporting channels). The numerical results show that the detection reliability decreases as the cascading order n increases and substantially improves when CSS employs MRC schemes. It is demonstrated that CSS with MRC scheme keeps the probability of false alarm minimal under imperfect reporting channels rather than increasing the number of cooperative users. Finally, we present a new approach for the performance analysis of IVC systems over n*Rayleigh fading channels, using n_T transmit and n_R receive antennas to combat fading influence. In this context, we evaluate the performance of MIMO-V2V systems based on the transmit antenna selection with maximum ratio combining (TAS/MRC) and selection combining (TAS/SC) schemes. In this study, we derive tight analytical expressions for the outage probability, the symbol error probability, and the amount of fading over n*Rayleigh fading channels. It is shown that both schemes have the same maximum diversity order equivalent to (d≈mn_T n_R /n). In addition, TAS/MRC offers a better performance gain than TAS/SC scheme when the number of receive antennas is more than that of transmit antennas, but the performance improvement is limited as n increases

A Tutorial on the Optimization of Amplify-and-Forward MIMO Relay Systems

The remarkable promise of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless channels has motivated an intense research activity to characterize the theoretical and practical issues associated with the design of transmit (source) and receive (destination) processing matrices under different operating conditions. This activity was primarily focused on point-to-point (single-hop) communications but more recently there has been an extensive work on two-hop or multi-hop settings in which single or multiple relays are used to deliver the information from the source to the destination. The aim of this tutorial is to provide an up-to-date overview of the fundamental results and practical implementation issues of designing amplify-and-forward MIMO relay systems