LLR-Based Decode-and-Forward Protocol for Relay Networks and Closed-Form BER Expressions

摘要

Decode-and-forward cooperative communications protocol (DFP) allows single-antenna users in wireless medium to obtain the powerful benefits of multi-antenna systems without physical antenna arrays. So far, only signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) or square amplitude of path gain has been used to evaluate the reliability of received signals for relays to decide whether to forward the decoded data so as to prevent unsuccessful detection at the relays. In this paper, we propose using log-likelihood ratio (LLR) as an alternative to SNR in the conventional DFP. Closed-form BER expressions for different versions of DFP are also derived and verified by Monte-Carlo simulations. A variety of numerical results reveal the significant superiority of LLR-based DFP to SNR-based DFP regardless of threshold level and relay position under flat Rayleigh fading channel plus additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN).