Pragmatic Space-Time Codes for Cooperative Relaying in Block Fading Channels

We address the problem of construction of space-time codes for cooperative communications in block fading channels. More precisely, we consider a pragmatic approach based on the concatenation of convolutional codes and BPSK/QPSK modulation to obtain cooperative codes for relay networks, for which we derive the pairwise error probability, an asymptotic bound for frame error probability, and a design criterion to optimize both diversity and coding gain. Based on this framework, we set up a code search procedure to obtain a set of good pragmatic space-time codes (P-STCs) with overlay construction, suitable for cooperative communication with a variable number of relays in quasistatic channel, which outperform in terms of coding gain other space-time codes (STCs) proposed in the literature. We also find that, despite the fact that the implementation of pragmatic space-time codes requires standard convolutional encoders and Viterbi decoders with suitable generators and branch metric, thus having low complexity, they perform quite well in block fading channels, including quasistatic channel, even with a low number of states and relays

Wireless Cooperative Networks

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Exploitation of quasi-orthogonal space time block codes in virtual antenna arrays: part II Monte Carlo-based throughput evaluation

A full rate and full diversity closed-loop quasi-orthogonal space time block coding scheme due to Toker, Lambotharan and Chambers is proposed for application in virtual antenna arrays. The performance gain is achieved through closed-loop operation involving feedback of phase rotation angle(s) calculated from channel state information (CSI) to the transmitter array. Throughput performance of the proposed scheme, with and without power optimisation, is investigated through Monte Carlo simulation with QPSK constellation signals. The results confirm the improvement in throughput performance over orthogonal space time block codes

Collaborative HARQ Schemes for Cooperative Diversity Communications in Wireless Networks

Wireless technology is experiencing spectacular developments, due to the emergence of interactive and digital multimedia applications as well as rapid advances in the highly integrated systems. For the next-generation mobile communication systems, one can expect wireless connectivity between any devices at any time and anywhere with a range of multimedia contents. A key requirement in such systems is the availability of high-speed and robust communication links. Unfortunately, communications over wireless channels inherently suffer from a number of fundamental physical limitations, such as multipath fading, scarce radio spectrum, and limited battery power supply for mobile devices. Cooperative diversity (CD) technology is a promising solution for future wireless communication systems to achieve broader coverage and to mitigate wireless channels’ impairments without the need to use high power at the transmitter. In general, cooperative relaying systems have a source node multicasting a message to a number of cooperative relays, which in turn resend a processed version message to an intended destination node. The destination node combines the signal received from the relays, and takes into account the source’s original signal to decode the message. The CD communication systems exploit two fundamental features of the wireless medium: its broadcast nature and its ability to achieve diversity through independent channels. A variety of relaying protocols have been considered and utilized in cooperative wireless networks. Amplify and forward (AAF) and decode and forward (DAF) are two popular protocols, frequently used in the cooperative systems. In the AAF mode, the relay amplifies the received signal prior to retransmission. In the DAF mode, the relay fully decodes the received signal, re-encodes and forwards it to the destination. Due to the retransmission without decoding, AAF has the shortcoming that noise accumulated in the received signal is amplified at the transmission. DAF suffers from decoding errors that can lead to severe error propagation. To further enhance the quality of service (QoS) of CD communication systems, hybrid Automatic Repeat-reQuest (HARQ) protocols have been proposed. Thus, if the destination requires an ARQ retransmission, it could come from one of relays rather than the source node. This thesis proposes an improved HARQ scheme with an adaptive relaying protocol (ARP). Focusing on the HARQ as a central theme, we start by introducing the concept of ARP. Then we use it as the basis for designing three types of HARQ schemes, denoted by HARQ I-ARP, HARQ II-ARP and HARQ III-ARP. We describe the relaying protocols, (both AAF and DAF), and their operations, including channel access between the source and relay, the feedback scheme, and the combining methods at the receivers. To investigate the benefits of the proposed HARQ scheme, we analyze its frame error rate (FER) and throughput performance over a quasi-static fading channel. We can compare these with the reference methods, HARQ with AAF (HARQ-AAF) and HARQ with perfect distributed turbo codes (DTC), for which correct decoding is always assumed at the relay (HARQ-perfect DTC). It is shown that the proposed HARQ-ARP scheme can always performs better than the HARQ-AAF scheme. As the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the channel between the source and relay increases, the performance of the proposed HARQ-ARP scheme approaches that of the HARQ-perfect DTC scheme

Effects of relay position and power allocation in space-time coded cooperative wireless systems

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On the Diversity Order and Coding Gain of Multi-Source Multi-Relay Cooperative Wireless Networks with Binary Network Coding

In this paper, a multi-source multi-relay cooperative wireless network with binary modulation and binary network coding is studied. The system model encompasses: i) a demodulate-and-forward protocol at the relays, where the received packets are forwarded regardless of their reliability; and ii) a maximum-likelihood optimum demodulator at the destination, which accounts for possible demodulations errors at the relays. An asymptotically-tight and closed-form expression of the end-to-end error probability is derived, which clearly showcases diversity order and coding gain of each source. Unlike other papers available in the literature, the proposed framework has three main distinguishable features: i) it is useful for general network topologies and arbitrary binary encoding vectors; ii) it shows how network code and two-hop forwarding protocol affect diversity order and coding gain; and ii) it accounts for realistic fading channels and demodulation errors at the relays. The framework provides three main conclusions: i) each source achieves a diversity order equal to the separation vector of the network code; ii) the coding gain of each source decreases with the number of mixed packets at the relays; and iii) if the destination cannot take into account demodulation errors at the relays, it loses approximately half of the diversity order.Comment: 35 pages, submitted as a Journal Pape

Design of low-density parity-check codes in relay channels

Recent breakthroughs in forward error correction, in the form of low-density parity-check (LDPC) and turbo codes, have seen near Shannon limit performances especially for pointto- point channels. The construction of capacity-achieving codes in relay channels, for LDPC codes in particular, is currently the subject of intense interest in the research and development community. This thesis adds to this field, developing methods and supporting theory in designing capacity-achieving LDPC codes for decode-and-forward (DF) schemes in relay channels. In the first part of the thesis, new theoretical results toward optimizing the achievable rate of DF scheme in half-duplex relay channels under simplified and pragmatic conditions (equal power or equal time allocation) are developed. We derive the closed-form solutions for the optimum parameters (time or power) that maximize the achievable rates of the DF scheme in the half-duplex relay channel. We also derive the closed-form expression for the DF achievable rates under these simplified and pragmatic conditions. The second part of the thesis is dedicated to study the problem of designing several classes of capacity-achieving LDPC codes in relay channels. First, a new ensemble of LDPC codes, termed multi-edge-type bilayer-expurgated LDPC (MET-BE-LDPC) codes, is introduced to closely approach the theoretical limit of the DF scheme in the relay channel. We propose two design strategies for optimizing MET-BE-LDPC codes; the bilayer approach and the bilayer approach with intermediate rates. Second, we address the issue of constructing capacity-achieving distributed LDPC codes in the multiple-access and two-way relay channels, with broadcast transmissions and time-division multiple accesses. We propose a new methodology to asymptotically optimize the code’s degree distribution when different segments within the distributed codeword have been transmitted through separate channels and experienced distinct signal-to-noise ratio in the relay system. Third, we investigate the use of LDPC codes under the soft-decode-and forward (SDF) scheme in the half-duplex relay channel. We introduce the concept of a K-layer doping matrix that enables one to design the rate-compatible (RC) LDPC code with a lower triangular parity-check matrix, subsequently allowing the additional parity bits to be linearly and systematically encoded at the relay. We then present the soft-decoding and soft-re-encoding algorithms for the designed RC-LDPC code so that the relay can forward soft messages to the destination when the relay fails to decode the source’s messages. Special attention is given to the detection problem of the SDF scheme. We propose a novel method, which we refer to as soft fading, to compute the log-likelihood ratio of the received signal at the destination for the SDF scheme