Minimum sum-power design of a cooperative system using the decode and forward protocol

The aim of this paper is to design both transmitters and receiver of a cooperative network, such that the equivalent communication link achieves a given target rate using the minimal overall transmit sum power; the decode-and-forward protocol is considered. Successively, we compare, in terms of consumed energy, the cooperative communication and the direct communication. From this comparison, we determine the condition that makes cooperative communications more convenient than direct communications.