Relay Selection Aided Distributed Space-Time Block Code for Two-Way Relay Channel with Physical-Layer Network Coding

In this contribution, we present a novel distributed space-time block coding (DSTBC) scheme with the aid of an error detection code based selection relaying protocol for multi-relay assisted two-way cooperative communication systems. We show that our proposed scheme can achieve full diversity order without employing any strong channel codes to protect the source-to-relay link. This simple selection relaying strategy can effectively mitigate the error propagation inflicted by the relay nodes for the sake of retaining the orthogonality of the space-time block code which is constructed and transmitted in a distributed fashion. Also, physical-layer network coding (PNC) is employed to guarantee that the information exchange between two users via a single or multiple relays can be fulfilled within two time slots. Hence, this novel cooperative communication scheme for two-way relay channels can achieve significant throughput and spectral efficiency improvements.