We consider the problem of jointly optimizing channel pairing, channel-user
assignment, and power allocation, to maximize the weighted sum-rate, in a
single-relay cooperative system with multiple channels and multiple users.
Common relaying strategies are considered, and transmission power constraints
are imposed on both individual transmitters and the aggregate over all
transmitters. The joint optimization problem naturally leads to a mixed-integer
program. Despite the general expectation that such problems are intractable, we
construct an efficient algorithm to find an optimal solution, which incurs
computational complexity that is polynomial in the number of channels and the
number of users. We further demonstrate through numerical experiments that the
jointly optimal solution can significantly improve system performance over its
suboptimal alternatives.Comment: This is the full version of a paper to appear in the IEEE Journal on
Selected Areas in Communications, Special Issue on Cooperative Networking -
Challenges and Applications (Part II), October 201