Precoder Design for Correlated Multi-Antenna Cooperative Systems with Partial Decode and Forward Protocol and MMSE-SIC Receivers

Cooperative communication is an important technology in next generation wireless networks. Partial decode-and-forward provides an alternative solution for the conventional amplify-and-forward as well as decode-and-forward relay protocols. However, there are several important issues to be addressed regarding the application of partial decode-and-forward protocol. In this paper, we address the practical issues by proposing a joint MIMO precoder design for the multi-antenna cooperative system with correlated MIMO fading and partial decode-and-forward relay protocol. In addition, the MIMO precoders at both the source and the relay are matched to the MMSE-SIC receivers at the destination. We find that under similar system settings, joint MIMO precoder design with partial decode-and-forward relay protocol and MMSE-SIC receivers achieves substantial performance enhancement and has important practical significance.