Performance comparison of different protocols for a two-hop multiple relay network

Optimal resource allocation requires global channel knowledge in a relay network. When no or partial channel knowledge is available then static resource allocation is another alternative. This paper investigates the performances of different relaying protocols for static and dynamic resource allocations. A 2-hop relay network with multiple relays is considered. The protocols include adaptive amplify-or-decode & forward (ADF), coded cooperation (CC), and a novel method adaptive coded cooperation or amplify-and-forward (CCAF). In ADF and CCAF, a relay can adapt the forwarding scheme according to the reliability of the received signal. The results show that for fixed resource allocation, ADF always outperform CC. However, for dynamic resource allocation it is the other way around. Moreover, under dynamic resource allocation, CCAF and CC deliver similar performance.