On the Performance of the Relay-ARQ Networks

This paper investigates the performance of relay networks in the presence of hybrid automatic repeat request (ARQ) feedback and adaptive power allocation. The throughput and the outage probability of different hybrid ARQ protocols are studied for independent and spatially-correlated fading channels. The results are obtained for the cases where there is a sum power constraint on the source and the relay or when each of the source and the relay are power-limited individually. With adaptive power allocation, the results demonstrate the efficiency of relay-ARQ techniques in different conditions.Comment: Accepted for publication in IEEE Trans. Veh. Technol. 201

Performance Analysis and Cooperation Mode Switch in HARQ-based Relaying

We study the optimal, in terms of power-limited outage probability (OP), placement of the relay and investigate the effect of relay placement on the optimal cooperation mode of the source and the relay nodes. Using hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) based relaying techniques, general expressions for the OP and the average transmit power are derived. The results are then particularized to the repetition time diversity (RTD) protocol. The analytical expressions are used to find the transmit powers minimizing the power-limited OP. Our results demonstrate that adaptive power allocation reduces the OP significantly. For instance, consider a Rayleigh fading channel, an OP of 10^-3 and a maximum of 2 RTD-based retransmissions. Then, compared to equal power allocation, the required transmission signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is reduced by 5 dB, if adaptive power allocation is utilized. Another important observation is that, depending on the relay positions and the total power budget, the system should switch between the single-node transmission mode and the joint transmission mode, in order to minimize the outage probability

The Impact of Channel Feedback on Opportunistic Relay Selection for Hybrid-ARQ in Wireless Networks

This paper presents a decentralized relay selection protocol for a dense wireless network and describes channel feedback strategies that improve its performance. The proposed selection protocol supports hybrid automatic-repeat-request transmission where relays forward parity information to the destination in the event of a decoding error. Channel feedback is employed for refining the relay selection process and for selecting an appropriate transmission mode in a proposed adaptive modulation transmission framework. An approximation of the throughput of the proposed adaptive modulation strategy is presented, and the dependence of the throughput on system parameters such as the relay contention probability and the adaptive modulation switching point is illustrated via maximization of this approximation. Simulations show that the throughput of the proposed selection strategy is comparable to that yielded by a centralized selection approach that relies on geographic information.Comment: 30 pages, 9 figures, submitted to the IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, revised March 200

Opportunistic Relay Selection with Limited Feedback

It has been shown that a decentralized relay selection protocol based on opportunistic feedback from the relays yields good throughput performance in dense wireless networks. This selection strategy supports a hybrid-ARQ transmission approach where relays forward parity information to the destination in the event of a decoding error. Such an approach, however, suffers a loss compared to centralized strategies that select relays with the best channel gain to the destination. This paper closes the performance gap by adding another level of channel feedback to the decentralized relay selection problem. It is demonstrated that only one additional bit of feedback is necessary for good throughput performance. The performance impact of varying key parameters such as the number of relays and the channel feedback threshold is discussed. An accompanying bit error rate analysis demonstrates the importance of relay selection.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Proceedings of 2007 IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference-Spring in Dublin, Irelan

Link Quality Control Mechanism for Selective and Opportunistic AF Relaying in Cooperative ARQs: A MLSD Perspective

Incorporating relaying techniques into Automatic Repeat reQuest (ARQ) mechanisms gives a general impression of diversity and throughput enhancements. Allowing overhearing among multiple relays is also a known approach to increase the number of participating relays in ARQs. However, when opportunistic amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying is applied to cooperative ARQs, the system design becomes nontrivial and even involved. Based on outage analysis, the spatial and temporal diversities are first found sensitive to the received signal qualities of relays, and a link quality control mechanism is then developed to prescreen candidate relays in order to explore the diversity of cooperative ARQs with a selective and opportunistic AF (SOAF) relaying method. According to the analysis, the temporal and spatial diversities can be fully exploited if proper thresholds are set for each hop along the relaying routes. The SOAF relaying method is further examined from a packet delivery viewpoint. By the principle of the maximum likelihood sequence detection (MLSD), sufficient conditions on the link quality are established for the proposed SOAF-relaying-based ARQ scheme to attain its potential diversity order in the packet error rates (PERs) of MLSD. The conditions depend on the minimum codeword distance and the average signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Furthermore, from a heuristic viewpoint, we also develop a threshold searching algorithm for the proposed SOAF relaying and link quality method to exploit both the diversity and the SNR gains in PER. The effectiveness of the proposed thresholding mechanism is verified via simulations with trellis codes.Comment: This paper has been withdrawn by the authors due to an improper proof for Theorem 2. To avoid a misleading understanding, we thus decide to withdraw this pape

Cooperative retransmission protocols in fading channels : issues, solutions and applications

Future wireless systems are expected to extensively rely on cooperation between terminals, mimicking MIMO scenarios when terminal dimensions limit implementation of multiple antenna technology. On this line, cooperative retransmission protocols are considered as particularly promising technology due to their opportunistic and flexible exploitation of both spatial and time diversity. In this dissertation, some of the major issues that hinder the practical implementation of this technology are identified and pertaining solutions are proposed and analyzed. Potentials of cooperative and cooperative retransmission protocols for a practical implementation of dynamic spectrum access paradigm are also recognized and investigated. Detailed contributions follow. While conventionally regarded as energy efficient communications paradigms, both cooperative and retransmission concepts increase circuitry energy and may lead to energy overconsumption as in, e.g., sensor networks. In this context, advantages of cooperative retransmission protocols are reexamined in this dissertation and their limitation for short transmission ranges observed. An optimization effort is provided for extending an energy- efficient applicability of these protocols. Underlying assumption of altruistic relaying has always been a major stumbling block for implementation of cooperative technologies. In this dissertation, provision is made to alleviate this assumption and opportunistic mechanisms are designed that incentivize relaying via a spectrum leasing approach. Mechanisms are provided for both cooperative and cooperative retransmission protocols, obtaining a meaningful upsurge of spectral efficiency for all involved nodes (source-destination link and the relays). It is further recognized in this dissertation that the proposed relaying-incentivizing schemes have an additional and certainly not less important application, that is in dynamic spectrum access for property-rights cognitive-radio implementation. Provided solutions avoid commons-model cognitive-radio strict sensing requirements and regulatory and taxonomy issues of a property-rights model