A novel subcarrier-pair based opportunistic DF protocol is proposed for
cooperative downlink OFDMA transmission aided by a decode-and-forward (DF)
relay. Specifically, user message bits are transmitted in two consecutive
equal-duration time slots. A subcarrier in the first slot can be paired with a
subcarrier in the second slot for the DF relay-aided transmission to a user. In
particular, the source and the relay can transmit simultaneously to implement
beamforming at the subcarrier in the second slot for the relay-aided
transmission. Each unpaired subcarrier in either the first or second slot is
used by the source for direct transmission to a user without the relay's
assistance. The sum rate maximized resource allocation (RA) problem is
addressed for this protocol under a total power constraint. It is shown that
the novel protocol leads to a maximum sum rate greater than or equal to that
for a benchmark one, which does not allow the source to implement beamforming
at the subcarrier in the second slot for the relay-aided transmission. Then, a
polynomial-complexity RA algorithm is developed to find an (at least
approximately) optimum resource allocation (i.e., source/relay power,
subcarrier pairing and assignment to users) for either the proposed or
benchmark protocol. Numerical experiments illustrate that the novel protocol
can lead to a much greater sum rate than the benchmark one.Comment: 6 pages, accepted by 2013 IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking
Conferenc