Outage Performance of Dual-Hop Relay Network

with Co-Channel Interference

Shaohua Chen, Xin Zhang, Fang Liu and Dacheng Yang,
Wireless Theories and Technologies Lab (WT&T)
Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications
Beijing, P.R. China
Email: csh200405@gmail.com

Abstract—In this paper, we investigate the outage performance
of dual-hop relay networks with co-channel interference which
is a major problem in the cellular radio system. A more realistic
channel fading model for micro-cellular radio network is adopted
as follows, and the desired signal is assumed to have Rician
fading due to the presence of line-of-sight (LOS) propagation
and the interfering signals from neighboring cells are assumed
to experience Rayleigh fading because of the absence of a LOS
propagation. An upper bound of outage probability and the
asymptotic expression for amplify-and-forward (AF) protocol are
derived. Meanwhile, we also propose the optimal power allocation
for dual-hop relay networks in high signal-to-interference ratio
(SIR) regime. Computer simulations have been performed to
verify the validity and the accuracy of theoretical results.
Index Terms—relay, co-channel interference, outage probabil-
ity, amplify-and-forward.
I. I NTRODUCTION
Recently, cooperative communication [1] has been received
considerable research attention since it can significantly im-
prove the performance of wireless networks. As a basic part
of cooperative systems, multihop or dual-hop relay technique
provides an effective solution to the radio range problem
encountered in wireless communications. In general, relaying
systems are classified as amplify-and-forward (AF) where the
relay node retransmits the received signal with power amplifi-
cation, and decode-and-forward (DF) system where the relay
decodes the signal and re-encodes it before retransmission.
The performance analysis of cooperative and relay systems
operating over fading channels has been an important area
of research in recent years. Most previous works in the
literature focus on noise-limited fading environments, such as
Rayleigh fading and Nakagami-m fading with additive white
Gaussian noise (AWGN) [2]–[5]. The authors in [2] have
presented an exact average symbol error rate analysis for a
cooperative network with K amplifying relays in a Rayleigh-
fading environment. In [3], the end-to-end system performance
of a dual-hop AF relay systems has been studied in terms
of the average bit error probability as well as the outage
performance for noise limited systems. An exact closed-form
expression of error rate performance for semi-blind AF relays
over Nakagami-m fading channels is reported in [4]. The
asymptotic expressions for the symbol error probability for
a variety of cooperative diversity network schemes such as
single relay, multiple relays and multiple hops are provided
in [5]. However, relay networks with co-channel interference
, which degrades the desired signal quality at the receiving
nodes and is very typical in cellular radio mobile systems
(due to frequency reuse), is to receive further research. The
authors of [6] have addressed the performance analysis of
a dual-hop relay network in which the destination node is
corrupted by co-channel interference while the relay node is
only perturbed by additive noise. To our best knowledge, it is
more reasonable and practical to model the wireless relaying
systems as the relay and destination nodes are corrupted by
co-channel interference as well as AWGN in cellular radio
systems. Specifically, in this paper we adopt Rician-Rayleigh
fading model [7], [8] where the desired signal is assumed to
have Rician fading due to the existence of line-of-sight (LOS)
in within-cell transmission and the interfering signals from the
neighboring cells are assumed to experience Rayleigh fading
without LOS propagations.
In contrast to previous works, we firstly propose a more
practical model to analyze dual-hop relay channel with co-
channel interference. Then we mainly focus on investigat-
ing the outage performance in medium and high signal-to-
interference ratio(SIR) regimes. Afterwards, under the total
power constant, we calculate the optimization of power allo-
cation in order to minimize the outage probability.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. In section II,
we present the system model for analysis of dual-hop relay
channel with co-channel interference. In section III, we derive
a tight lower bound of outage probability for AF protocol. In
section IV, the asymptotic outage probability is considered. In
section V, power allocation based on the asymptotic outage
probability is investigated. In section VI, simulation results
and discussion are given. Finally, in section VII, we draw our
conclusion.
II. SYSTEM MODEL
Consider a general dual-hop relay network as shown in Fig.1
where a source node S communicates with a destination node
D through a relay R while the direct link between S and D is
unavailable due to deeply shadowed. Throughout this paper,
we assume the all channels experience frequency-flat fading,
perfect channel state information (CSI) of link S − R (R − D)
is available at R (D) for coherent reception and source S has
the CSI knowledge of all links for further power allocation.

978-1-4244-2519-8/10/$26.00 ©2010 IEEE

 Based on (2) and (3), the instantaneous end-to-end SIR of
gN the system can be calculated as,
g1 PR |hRD |2 PS |hSR |2
R
AWGN

 N2 j 2
 N1 i 2
gi P
j=1 2 |hj | i=1 P1 |gi |
γend = PR |hRD |2 PS |hSR |2
(4)
hSR g2
hRD  N2 j 2
+  N1 i 2
+1
j=1 P2 |hj | i=1 P1 |gi |
hN
 
S where PS = E |x|2 , which denotes the average transmitting
D
AWGN

h1
h3
hi power at S.
h2 For simplicity, we rewritten (4) as,
γ1 γ2
γend = (5)
γ1 + γ2 + 1
Fig. 1. System Model of a dual-hop relay system with co-channel interference
PS |hSR |2 PR |hRD |2
where γ1 =  N1 i 2
and γ2 =  N2 j 2
represent the
i=1 P1 |gi | j=1 P2 |hj |
instantaneous SIR of S − R link and R − D link, respectively.
As can be seen from Fig.1, both R and D are not only
corrupted by AWGN but also co-channel interference which In Rician-Rayleigh fading condition, we generality consider
is different from traditional relay network models. The chan- the following two cases. In case I, all interfering signals for the
nels from interferers to R and D denoted respectively by same receiving node (R, D) have distinct average powers, i.e.,
N1
{hi }i=1
N2
and {gi }i=1 are assumed to be independent identically P1i = P1j , P2i = P2j , ∀i = j. The cumulative density functions
distributed zero-mean complex Gaussian random variables (CDFs) of γ1 and γ2 for case I are then given, respectively,
with unit variance, where N1 and N2 denote the number as follows [7],
of interferers corrupting R and D, respectively. Assuming
FγI1 (γ) = 1−
that the channel coefficients of S − R and R − D links
N1  

denoted respectively by hSR and hRD are subject to mutually γ(K1 + 1) K1 ρis
1− exp −
independent Rician flat fading. Besides, the system is assumed
i=1
ρis + γ(K1 + 1) ρis + γ(K1 + 1)
to be interference-limited, therefore the effect of the thermal
N1

noise can be neglected for simplicity. ρjs
·
During the first time slot (Time division multiple access is
j=1,j=i
ρjs − ρis
adopted here), the received signal at R without considering (6)
noise term is given by,
N1

yR = hSR · x + gi xR,i (1) FγI2 (γ) = 1−
N2
 
i=1  γ(K2 + 1) K2 ρjr
1− exp −
where x denotes the transmitted symbol at S, and xR,i denotes
j=1 ρjr + γ(K2 + 1) ρjr + γ(K2 + 1)
the undesired signal from ith co-channel
 interferer to R with N2
average power P1i = E |xR,i |2 , where E(·) denotes the  ρir
·
statistical average operator. i=1,i=j
ρir − ρjr
In the second time slot, R amplifies yR by multiplying a (7)
factor G given in (3) and then transmits the amplified vision
to D. The received signal at D without considering noise term where K1 and K2 are the Rician K-factors defined as the
thus can be expressed as, ratio of the power in the LOS component to the power in
the other (non-LOS) multipath components, ρis = PS /P1i and
N2
 ρjr = PR /P2j .
yD = hRD · (GyR ) + hj xD,j (2)
In case II, all interfering signals have the same mean power,
j=1
i.e., P1i = P1 , P2j = P2 , ∀i, j. The CDFs of γ1 and γ2 can be
where G depend upon the instantaneous fading coefficient of expressed as follows [7],
S − R link [1], 
 (K1 + 1)γ K1 ρs
Fγ1 (γ) =
II
exp −
PR ρs + (K1 + 1)γ ρs + (K1 + 1)γ
G=  (3)
N1 N1 −1  k  k  
|hSR |2 E {|x|2 } + i=1 |gi |2 E {|xR,i |2 } ρs k
· (8)
ρs + (K1 + 1)γ m=0 k − m
and PR denotes the average transmitting power at R, xD,j k=0
 m
represents the jth co-channel undesired signal
 at Din the 1 K1 (K1 + 1)γ
·
second time slot with average power P2j = E |xD,j |2 . m! ρs + (K1 + 1)γ
 
(K2 + 1)γ K2 ρr
FγII2 (γ) = exp − For large SIR, pγb (γ) can be approximated by the first term
ρr + (K2 + 1)γ ρr + (K2 + 1)γ
of the McLaurin series [10],
N2 −1  k k  
ρr k
· (9) pγb (γ) = Aγ t + o(γ t ) (15)
ρr + (K2 + 1)γ m=0 k − m
k=0
 m
1 K2 (K2 + 1)γ where if the derivatives of pγb (γ) up to order t − 1 are zero,
· then A = 1/t!(∂ t pγ (γ))/(∂γ t )(0). With this approximation
m! ρr + (K2 + 1)γ
approach, pγb (γ) can be approximated as
where ρs = PS /P1 and ρr = PR /P2 .
pγb (γ) = pγ1 (0) + pγ2 (0) + o(1) (16)
III. O UTAGE P ERFORMANCE
which means t = 0 and A = pγ1 (0) + pγ2 (0). Finally, the
It is known that an exact analytical analysis for the end-to-
outage probability can be obtained as
end performance of the noise-limited dual-hop relay systems
 γth
is very difficult. And it is also impossible to get a closed-form
Pout = pγb (γ) dγ = [pγ1 (0) + pγ2 (0)]γth (17)
result for the relay system with interference. We then simplify 0
the calculation in medium and high SIR regimes by using a
more tractable form as follows, The values of pγ1 (γ), pγ2 (γ) at zero for case I are given
respectively by
γend < γb = min{γ1 , γ2 } (10) N1
 πi
In medium and high SIR regimes, we have pγ1 (0) = (1 + K1 )e−K1 i
(18)
ρ
i=1 s
γ1 γ2 γ1 γ2
γend = < < min{γ1 , γ2 }
γ1 + γ2 + 1 γ1 + γ2 N2
 πj
pγ2 (0) = (1 + K2 )e−K2 (19)
which gives a simple proof to (10). Besides, γb is widely used ρjr
j=1
in literature and shown to be a quite accurate upper bound of
γend [2], [9]. and for case II,
The probability of outage in interference-limited environ-
ment is defined as the probability that the instantaneous SIR pγ1 (0) = N1 (1 + K1 )e−K1 /ρs (20)
falls below a certain threshold γth . It can be mathematically
pγ2 (0) = N2 (1 + K2 )e−K2 /ρr (21)
formulated as
Pout = Prob[γb < γth ] where
N1
 N2

= 1 − Prob[γ1 > γth ] · Prob[γ2 > γth ] (11) ρjs ρir
πi = and πj =
= 1 − [1 − Fγ1 (γth )] · [1 − Fγ2 (γth )] ρj − ρis ρir − ρjr
j=0,j=i s i=0,i=j
Based on the CDFs of γ1 , γ2 in (6) and (7), the outage
Consequently, the asymptotic expression for case I and case
probability of γb for case I can be calculated as,
II can be expressed respectively as (22) and (23) at the top of
Pout,I = FγI1 (γth ) + FγI2 (γth ) − FγI1 (γth )FγI2 (γth ) (12) the next page.

In case II, where all interference have the same mean power,
the outage probability for γb is given by,
Pout,II = FγII1 (γth ) + FγII2 (γth ) − FγII1 (γth )FγII2 (γth ) (13)
Since γend ≤ γb , Pout,I can be regarded as an lower
bound of the outage probability for case I, and similar Pout,II
is an lower bound of the outage probability for case II.
Simulations in section VI show that (12) and (13) provide
good approximations to the outage probability of the system.
IV. A SYMPTOTIC P ERFORMANCE
To get more insightful results, in this section, we consider
the asymptotic performance in high SIR regime. By replacing
γth with γ in (12) and (13), then we take derivative with
respect to γ, the probability density function (PDF) of γb can
be expressed as
pγb (γ) = pγ1 (γ)[1 − Fγ2 (γ)] + pγ2 (γ)[1 − Fγ1 (γ)] (14)
V. P OWER A LLOCATION
Power allocation is a promising technique that can improve
the performance of relaying networks. In this section, optimal
power allocation on S and R for AF relay networks with
co-channel interference is proposed to minimize the outage
probability based on the asymptotic expression of outage
performance. As mentioned in section II, the CSI knowledge
of all links is available at S for power allocation. For simplicity
and without loss of generality, we take (23) as the objective
function to calculate the optimization of power allocation.
Assume the interferences at R and D have the same mean
power, i.e., P1 = P2 , while the total power constraint of the
whole system is PS + PR = PT . Consequently, the asymptotic
outage probability can be rewritten as,

asy N1 (1 + K1 )e−K1 N2 (1 + K2 )e−K2 γth
Pout (λ) = +
λ 1−λ ρ
(24)
 ⎡ ⎤
N1
 N2
 
π i π j
asy
Pout,I = ⎣(1 + K1 )e−K1 i
+ (1 + K2 )e−K2 j
⎦ γth (22)
i=1
ρs j=1 ρr


asy N1 (1 + K1 )e−K1 N2 (1 + K2 )e−K2
Pout,II = + γth (23)
ρs ρr

0
10
where ρ = PT /P1 , λ = PS /PT and 0 < λ < 1. Then the
optimal power allocation can be expressed mathematically as
K =K =1 K1=K2=2
1 2
asy
min Pout (λ) −1
λ 10

Outage Probability
subject to
0<λ<1 (25)
−2
10
By applying the Lagrange multiplier method, the optimal Lower bound Eq.(12)
Exact Eq.(5), Simulation
Lower bound, Simulation
solution can be obtained as, Eq.(22), Asymptotic


∗ N1 (1 + K1 )e−K1
λ =  (26) −3
10

N1 (1 + K1 )e−K1 + N2 (1 + K2 )e−K2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Threshold SIR γ
th

Hence the optimal power allocation for PS and PR are given Fig. 2. Outage probability of case I versus threshold value γth , N1 = N2 =
as: PS∗ = λ∗ PT and PR∗ = (1 − λ∗ )PT , respectively. For 4.
symmetric links, i.e., K1 = K2 and N1 = N2 , the optimal 1
10

solution is λ∗ = 1/2 which means the total power PT is

equally allocated at S and R.
0
10
VI. N UMERICAL R ESULTS K1=K2=0, N1=4, N2=5

In this section, the numerical results for outage proba-

Outage Probability

K =K =1, N =4, N =5
1 2 1 2
bility and power allocation of dual-hop relay networks in −1
10

the presence of co-channel interference are presented. Fig.2 K =K =1, N =N =3

1 2 1 2

shows the outage performance for case I where all interference −2

Lower bound Eq.(13)
Exact Eq.(5), Simulation

have distinct mean power versus threshold value γth and

10 Lower bound, Simulation
Asymptotic, Eq.(23)

different Rician K-factors. Without loss of generality, in

case I, the average transmit powers at S and R are set to −3
10
10 15 20 25 30 35
PS = PR = 20 dB, and the powers of the interference for SIR=P /P
S 1
[dB]

R and D are set respectively as P1 = [0.2, 0.4, 0.15, 0.25]

Fig. 3. Outage probability of case II versus average SIR ρ with γth = 10dB.
and P2 = [0.1, 0.5, 0.35, 0.05]. While Fig.3 depicts the outage
performance for case II versus average SIR, PS /P1 , with 10
0

PS = PR , P1 = P2 = 1. It is shown in both Fig.2 and K =K =1, N =N =6

1 2 1 2

Fig.3 that the Rician K-factor significantly affects the outage K1=1,K2=3, N1=6,N2=3
K =3,K =1, N =3,N =6
performance, i.e, the outage probability rapidly decreases as 1 2
K1=K2=2, N1=N2=6
1 2

K increases. In particular, the fading condition reduces to

Outage Probability

Rayleigh-Rayleigh fading environment when K1 = K2 = 0

as shown in Fig.2. This indicates that micro-cellular systems
with LOS components outperform large cell systems without −1
10
LOS components. Moreover, as the number of the interferer
(N1 , N2 ) increases, outage probability increases, which de-
grades the system performance as shown in Fig.3.
Additionally, it is observed in both Fig.2 and Fig.3, the 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
λ
0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9

lower bounds of outage probability in (12) and (13) ap-

proximate the exact simulated result based on (5) with a Fig. 4. Asymptotic outage performance with power allocation versus λ,
good precision in medium and high SIR regimes. Besides, ρ = 20 dB, γth = 10 dB.
the asymptotic expressions of (22) and (23) also provide an
excellent approximation to the simulations in high SIR regime.
 Fig.4 shows the outage performance versus power allocation
with ρ = 20 dB and γth = 10 dB. It is observed in 4 that
in symmetric fading channels, e.g., K1 = K2 = 1, 2 and
N1 = N2 = 6, the optimal power allocation is λ = 0.5.
Furthermore, the outage probability is greatly reduced with
optimal power allocation as indicted in this figure.
VII. C ONCLUSION
In this paper, we have proposed a dual-hop relaying channel
model with co-channel interference in micro-cellular wireless
environment and evaluated the outage performance for AF
relaying protocol. The lower bound of outage probability and
the asymptotic performance for the system are derived. Finally,
based on the asymptotic outage probability, power allocation
which is shown greatly improving the system performance
is investigated. Obviously, the channel fading model in this
paper is more applicable and realistic for micro-cellular radio
network compared with those models without considering
co-channel interference. In addition, our analysis provides
a general perspective on relaying channel over interference-
limited environments.
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