Optimal energy-efficient relay selection in cooperative cellular networks

In this paper, we consider relay selection technique in a cooperative cellular network where user terminals act as relays to help the communications between a base station (BS) and cell-edge users (CEUs). We firstly build cooperative sets for source mobile users according to their transmission radius. Then, transmission power sets are built for all mobile users according to SNR thresholds. Finally, Energy Efficient Cooperative-Sets-based Maximum Weighted Matching (EECS-MWM) algorithm is proposed to select the optimal relay for source users to maximize the system energy efficiency. The performance of proposed scheme is evaluated and compared with existing methods in terms of system energy efficiency, capacity, and the number of successful matched user pairs, which show that EECS-MWM can improve the performance of the cooperative cellular networks.