Relay Selection, Link Scheduling, and Rate Allocation in Dual-Hop Buffer-Aided Networks with Statistical Delay Constraints

This work considers the relay selection and resource allocation problem (i.e., link scheduling, and rate allocation) for multi-source, multi-relay dual-hop wireless networks. The relays employ buffers to store the received data from the sources for future transmissions. End-to-end (E2E) delay of each traffic flow originated from a source or a relay is constrained in terms of maximum allowable delay-outage probability. To solve this problem, we first study the resource allocation problem to maximize the constant supportable arrival rate of a non-prioritized source under minimum rate requirements of the prioritized sources and relays for a given relay selection solution. Then, the optimal relay selection can be determined to support the largest rate of the non-prioritized source among all possible relay selection solutions. We derive the resource allocation solutions using asymptotic delay analysis and convex optimization techniques. We also develop an online allocation algorithm which does not require the knowledge of the fading statistics by using stochastic approximation theory. Numerical results are presented to demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed resource allocation design for relay selection under different delay and rate constraint regimes.