Subcarrier-pair Based Power Allocation for Cooperative OFDM AF Multi-Relay Networks

For conventional subcarrier pairing schemes in cooperative orthogonal frequency division multiplexing amplify and forward multi-relay networks, to avoid interference, each subcarrier pair (SP) is assigned to only one relay. Over a specific subcarrier, the destination receives signals transmitted from only one relay. In our subcarrier pairing scheme, we assign each SP to all the relays. Thus, over a specific subcarrier, the destination receives signals transmitted from all the relays. Since it is assumed that there exists the direct link from the source to the destination, we assume that the source also transmits signals during the second time slot for the direct transmission mode. We propose an enhanced joint subcarrier pairing and power allocation optimization scheme which maximizes the transmission rate subject to total network power constraint. The problem is simplified and solved by using dual method. It is shown from simulation results that our proposed scheme outperforms the other schemes.