Comparison of cooperative schemes using joint channel coding and high-order modulation

In this paper, we compare cooperative networks using either coded amplify-and-forward, coded cooperation or distributed turbo coding, over quasi-static fading channels under the condition of identical data rate and power consumption. We demonstrate that, when the quality of the communication channels is sufficiently high, cooperative transmission provides gains with respect to direct transmission while coded amplify-and- forward performs similarly to coded cooperation. Furthermore, we compare selfish and unselfish coded cooperation and show that, in most cases, selfishness provides a performance advantage over unselfishness.