On the Performance of HARQ with Hybrid Relaying Schemes

In this paper, we consider a three-node relay system with a hybrid relaying scheme, where the relay, based on its decoding status, switches between decode-and-forward (DF) and compress-and-forward (CF) adaptively. We propose according HARQ strategy and analyze its throughput performance. Then, we consider practical implementation issues by enhancing the ability of the feedback channel from the destination to the relay to convey a few extra bits (only 2 bits in this paper) and propose a modified HARQ scheme accordingly. The combined technique exhibits superior performance over direct transmission and conventional DF.