A class of cooperative communication protocols for multi-node wireless networks

Abstract

In this paper, a class of cooperative communication protocols with arbitrary N-relay nodes is proposed for wireless networks, in which each relay coherently combines the signals received from the source and m (1/spl les/m/spl les/N-1) previous relays. Exact symbol-error-rate (SER) expressions for an arbitrary N-node network employing MPSK or QAM modulation are derived. Also an approximate expression for the SER, that is tight at high SNR, is provided. Furthermore, an optimal power allocation problem based on minimizing the asymptotically tight SER expression is formulated. Closed form solutions for the optimal power allocation problem are provided for some network topologies.