Title: Performance of amplify-and-forward multihop transmission over relay clusters with different routing strategies

Authors: Ferkan Yilmaz; Fahd Ahmed Khan; Mohamed-Slim Alouini

Addresses: Electrical Engineering Program, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 239556900, Makkah Province, Saudi Arabia ' Electrical Engineering Program, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 239556900, Makkah Province, Saudi Arabia ' Electrical Engineering Program, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 239556900, Makkah Province, Saudi Arabia

Abstract: We consider a multihop relay network in which two terminals are communicating with each other via a number of cluster of relays. Performance of such networks depends on the routing protocols employed. In this paper, we find the expressions for the Average Symbol Error Probability (ASEP) performance of Amplify-and-Forward (AF) multihop transmission for the simplest routing protocol in which the relay transmits using the channel having the best Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR). The ASEP performance of a better protocol proposed in Gui et al. (2009) known as the adhoc protocol is also analyzed. The derived expressions for the performance are a convenient tool to analyze the performance of AF multihop transmission over relay clusters. Monte-Carlo simulations verify the correctness of the proposed formulation and are in agreement with analytical results. Furthermore, we propose new generalized protocols termed as last-n-hop selection protocol, the dual path protocol, the forward-backward last-n-hop selection protocol and the forward-backward dual path protocol, to get improved ASEP performances. The ASEP performance of these proposed schemes is analysed by computer simulations. It is shown that close to optimal performance can be achieved by using the last-n-hop selection protocol and its forward-backward variant. The complexity of the protocols is also studied.

Keywords: performance analysis; routing protocols; multihop transmission; amplify-and-forward relay clusters; symbol error rate; routing strategies; multihop relay networks; signal to noise ratio; SNR; Monte Carlo simulation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAACS.2014.058017

International Journal of Autonomous and Adaptive Communications Systems, 2014 Vol.7 No.1/2, pp.110 - 127

Published online: 21 Oct 2014 *

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