EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking · 2009 · 45 citations · 11 references
EngineeringCommunicationElectrical EngineeringDigital CommunicationInformation TheoryWireless CommunicationsChannel CodingCommunication LinksCooperative CommunicationDiversity TechniquesNetwork Information TheoryAlamouti SchemeAmplify RelayingCommunications ProtocolsCooperative RelayingDecode-forward RelayingRelay ChannelRelay-assisted Communication
The implementation uses a custom OFDM physical layer that applies a distributed Alamouti block code, letting the relay transmit one encoded branch and enabling the use of an unchanged conventional Alamouti receiver. Over‑the‑air tests demonstrate that amplify‑and‑forward relaying is immune to relay carrier‑frequency offsets and yields up to 5.5 dB gain in peak‑power‑constrained networks, confirming substantial practical benefits of even the simplest relaying.
We present the results from over-the-air experiments of a complete implementation of an amplify and forward cooperative communications link. Our custom OFDM-based physical layer uses a distributed version of the Alamouti block code, where the relay sends one of the branches of Alamouti-encoded symbols. First we show analytically and experimentally that amplify and forward protocols are unaffected by carrier frequency offsets at the relay. This result allows us to use a conventional Alamouti receiver without change for the distributed relay system, thereby allowing cooperative systems to reuse components of current (noncooperative) systems. Our full system implementation shows gains of up to 5.5 dB in peak power constrained networks. Thus, we can conclusively state that even the simplest form of relaying can lead to significant gains in practical implementations.
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