Cooperative Communication

Dr. Md. Fazlul Kader

Associate Professor
Dept. of EEE, University of Chittagong
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Direct Vs Cooperative Transmission

Fig. 1: Direct vs cooperative transmission schemes [1]

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Cooperative Transmission
◼ In cooperative communications,
◼ Relay between source/transmitter and destination/receiver

◼ The relay channel → an auxiliary channel

◼ Assistance of a relay → more reliable transmission
◼ A key aspect:
◼ The processing of the signal received from the source node done by the relay.

◼ Cooperative communications protocol based on transmission modes

◼ Half-duplex
◼ Full-duplex protocol

◼ Cooperative communications protocol based on relaying strategies

1. Fixed relaying schemes and
2. Adaptive relaying schemes.
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Fixed Relaying Schemes

◼ The channel resources are divided in a fixed (deterministic) manner.
◼ The processing at the relay differs according to the employed protocol.
1. Fixed amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying protocol
▪ The relay simply scales the received version and transmits an amplified
version of it to the destination.
2. Fixed decode-and-forward (DF) relaying protocol
▪ The relay decode the received signal, re-encode it and then retransmit it to
the receiver.
▪ Advantages: Easy implementation
▪ Disadvantages: Low bandwidth efficiency
▪ Direct link is good enough→
▪ Relay transmission may not be required → wasted
▪ Channel resources are divided
▪ Solution: Adaptive relaying techniques,
▪ Selective relaying
▪ incremental relaying
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Adaptive Relaying Schemes

◼ Selective Relaying
◼ if SNR>= a certain threshold,
◼ The relay performs decode-and-forward operation on the message.
◼ if SNR< a certain threshold
◼ The relay idles
▪ The channel between the source and the relay has severe fading
◼ Incremental relaying
◼ If the source knows that the destination does not decode correctly,
◼ Then the source may repeat to transmit the information to the destination
◼ Or the relay may help forward information.
◼ In this case, a feedback channel from the destination to the source
and the relay is necessary.
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A Single Relay Aided Cooperation Protocol

◼ A three-node network
◼ A source, a relay and a destination

◼ Two orthogonal phases,

◼ TDMA
◼ Avoid interference between the two phases

◼ In phase 1,
◼ Source → Destination, Relay

◼ In phase 2,
◼ Relay → Destination

Fig. 2: A simplified cooperation model.

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Cont.

P1→ Transmit power by source (S)

P2→Transmit power by relay (R)
hs, r→ channel coefficient from S to R
hs, d→ channel coefficient from S to R
hr, d→ channel coefficient from R to D
Fig. 2: A simplified cooperation model.

◼ Phase 1
◼ Source → Destination, Relay
◼ P1=P2= P.
◼ The received signals ys,d and ys,r at the destination and the relay,
respectively, can be written as

where, x is the transmitted information symbol, and

ns,d and ns,r are additive noise.
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Cont.

P1→ Transmit power by source (S)

P2→Transmit power by relay (R)
hs, r→ channel coefficient from S to R
hs, d→ channel coefficient from S to R
hr, d→ channel coefficient from R to D
Fig. 2: A simplified cooperation model.

◼ Phase 2
◼ The relay forwards a processed version → D

where the function q(·) depends on relaying strategies (DF or AF)

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Fixed Cooperation Strategies

◼ Fixed relaying,
◼ The channel resources are divided in a fixed (deterministic)
manner.
◼ The processing at the relay differs according to the employed
protocols.
◼ The most common techniques are
◼ the fixed AF relaying protocol and
◼ the fixed relaying DF protocol
◼ Hybrid DFAF
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Fixed AF Relaying Protocol

◼ Fixed AF
◼ Often simply called an AF protocol
◼ The relay scales the received version
◼ The relay retransmits an amplified version

◼ Protocol Description
◼ Two cooperative phases

◼ Phase-1
◼ Source → Destination, Relay
◼ Transmitted symbol → x

◼ The received SNR at Destination

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Cont.

◼ Phase-2:
◼ Function of the Relay:
◼ The relay amplifies the received signal with an amplification factor
◼ Forwards it to the destination
◼ Amplification factor:
◼ Equalize the effect of the channel fade between the source and the relay.
◼ Inversely proportional to the received power

No→ noise variance

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Cont.

◼ Phase 2
◼ The relay transmit power→ P
◼ The received signal at the destination in phase 2

where
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Cont.

◼ At Destination:
◼ Receives two copies from the signal x
◼ through the source link and relay link.
◼ Performs maximal ratio combining (MRC)
◼ Other combining techniques can also be applied
◼ The SNR at the output of the MRC

◼ The combining factors a1 and a2 should be designed to maximize the

combined SNR.
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Cont.

◼ a1 and a2 are given by

◼ The instantaneous SNR of the MRC output is

where
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Cont.

◼ The instantaneous information capacity is given by

log→log2

◼ Substituting for the values of the SNR of both links, we can write

where

◼ The outage probability

R→ predefined target data rate threshold

▪ The AF protocol achieves diversity 2.

Outage probability is defined as the probability that information rate is less than
the required threshold information rate.
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Cont.

Simulation Parameters:
• The channel variance between the S
and D, σs,d is taken to be 1
• The channel variances for the S-R or
R-D channels are equal to 0.5.
• The noise variance is one.
• Target rate R=2 bps/Hz

Fig. Outage probability versus SNR.

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Cont.

Simulation Parameters:
• The channel variance between the S
and D, σs,d is taken to be 1
• The channel variances for the S-R or
R-D channels are equal to 0.5.
• The noise variance is one.
• Fixed SNR of 40 dB.

Fig. Outage probability versus Spectral Efficiency.

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Fixed DF Relaying protocol

◼ Fixed decode-and-forward (DF)

◼ Relay decode the received signal, re-encode it, and then retransmit
it to the receiver.
◼ Simply called a DF scheme
◼ The decoded signal at the relay → x’,
◼ The transmitted signal from the relay→√P(x’),
◼ The decoded signal at the relay may be incorrect.
◼ If forwarded, the decoding at the destination is meaningless.

◼ The diversity achieved is only one,

◼ The performance of the system is limited by the worst link from the
source–relay and source–destination.
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Cont.

◼ Fixed decode-and-forward (DF)

◼ Advantages:
◼ Reducing the effects of additive noise at the relay,
◼ Disadvantages
◼ Possibility of forwarding erroneously detected signals to the destination,
◼ Error propagation can diminish the performance of the system.
◼ The instantaneous information capacity

min(.) → the relay only transmits if decoded correctly

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Cont.

◼ Fixed decode-and-forward (DF)

◼ The outage probability for the fixed DF relaying scheme is given by
Pr[IDF < R].

◼ The outage probability can be written as

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Cont.

Fig. Outage probability versus SNR.

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Cont.

Fig.: Outage probability versus spectral efficiency.

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Other cooperation strategies

◼ Other techniques:
◼ Compress-and-forward cooperation and
◼ Coded cooperation

◼ Compress-and-forward
◼ The relay transmits a quantized and compressed version of the
received message.
◼ Quantization:
◼ Digitizing a continuous-valued signal → a discrete and finite set of
values.
◼ Converting a discrete-valued signal → another discrete -valued
signal,
◼ fewer possible discrete values
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Cont.

◼ Coded Cooperation
◼ Cooperation is implemented at the level of the channel coding
subsystem.
◼ Redundancy

Fig. A transmission cycle for coded cooperation.

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Fixed Relaying

◼ Disadvantages:
◼ Fixed relaying suffers from deterministic loss in the transmission
rate
◼ 50% loss in the spectral efficiency with transmissions in two phases.
◼ In fixed DF relaying the performance is limited by the weakest
◼ Reduces the diversity gains to one.
◼ Solution:
◼ Adaptive relaying protocols
◼ Improve the inefficiency
◼ Two strategies:
◼ Selective DF relaying and
◼ Incremental relaying
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Adaptive Cooperation Strategies

◼ Selective Relaying
◼ if SNR>= a certain threshold,
◼ The relay performs decode-and-forward operation on the message.
◼ MRC at the destination
▪ Combine source-destination and relay-destination messages
◼ if SNR< a certain threshold
◼ The relay idles
▪ The channel between the source and the relay has severe fading
◼ Source transmits the same symbol/message again
◼ The instantaneous information capacity
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Cont.

◼ Selective Relaying

◼ The outage probability for selective DF relaying is given by

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Cont.

◼ Incremental Relaying
◼ There is a feedback channel from the destination to the relay
◼ Destination sends an acknowledgement
◼ Best spectral efficiency
◼ The second transmission phase becomes opportunistic
◼ Depends on the channel state condition between source and destination
◼ If phase-1 successful,
◼ No second phase
◼ New information in the next time slot
◼ Transmission rate R
◼ If phase-1 unsuccessful
◼ 2nd Phase: The relay can use any of the fixed relaying protocols
◼ Transmission rate R/2, as in fixed relaying
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Cont.

◼ Incremental Relaying
◼ Average spectral efficiency

◼ The outage probability

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Cont.

Fig. Outage probability versus SNR.

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Cont.

Fig. Outage probability versus SNR.

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Multiple Relay Aided Cooperation Protocol

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Reference
◼ K. J. Ray Liu: Cooperative Communications and
Networking