Cooperator switch diversity in cooperative networks

Cooperative diversity allows single-antenna terminals to explore uplink transmit diversity via antenna sharing. However, the achievable diversity gain is limited by the imperfect source-relay link. In this paper, we propose a cooperator switch diversity scheme to enhance the performance of cooperative networks. Cooperator switch diversity allows the source terminal to select a partner with good source-relay link quality out of multiple partners. We analyze the outage performance of the proposed technique over Rayleigh fading channels. We show that the cooperator switch diversity can significantly increase the diversity gain offered by cooperative networks.