Cooperative communication-aided multi-carrier code division multiple access downlink transmission with transmitter preprocessing: performance results

In this correspondence, the authors study the performance of multi-user transmitter preprocessing (MUTP)-assisted cooperative downlink (DL) transmission for multi-carrier code division multiple access (MC-CDMA) system, where multi-user interference (MUI) and inter-relay interference (IRI) are the principal channel impairments. Relaying is facilitated with the aid of fixed infrastructure-based relays that perform additional signal processing like formulating the preprocessing matrix for mitigating MUI in addition to forwarding the information they receive from the base station (BS). Specifically, in this study, the authors analyse the performance of cooperative communication-aided DL MC-CDMA system by employing three cooperation strategies: (i) all users supported by a single relay with dominant MUI at the relay and mobile stations (MSs); (ii) each user supported by a single relay where, MUI and IRI are dominant at the relays and MSs, respectively, as well as weak IRI at the MSs; and (iii) all users supported by L relays where MUI is dominant at the relays, and MUI and IRI are dominant at the MSs. Our simulation study shows that MUTP-aided cooperative DL transmission results in better achievable bit error rate than the multi-user detection-aided system as the MUI at the relays and MUI and IRI at the MSs are perfectly eliminated.