Energy efficiency of amplify-and-forward, repetition coding and parallel coding in short range communications

In this paper we exploit cooperative relaying for energy savings in narrowband short range communication scenarios. The nodes can operate under cooperative decode-and-forward with repetition coding (RC) or with parallel coding (PC), and cooperative amplify-and-forward (AF) protocols. The system is constrained by maximum packet loss and end-to-end throughput requirements. Our results show that, when the relay is closer to the source, AF and RC present similar performance in terms of energy consumption, while PC significantly outperforms the other schemes. On the other hand, when the relay is near the destination, AF offers the best efficiency.