Novel subcarrier-pair based opportunistic DF protocol for cooperative downlink OFDMA

A novel subcarrier-pair based opportunistic DF protocol is proposed for cooperative downlink OFDMA transmission aided by a decode-and-forward (DF) relay. Specifically, user message bits are transmitted in two consecutive equal-duration time slots. A subcarrier in the first slot can be paired with a subcarrier in the second slot for the DF relay-aided transmission to a user. In particular, the source and the relay can transmit simultaneously to implement beamforming at the subcarrier in the second slot for the relay-aided transmission. Each unpaired subcarrier in either the first or second slot is used by the source for direct transmission to a user without the relay´s assistance. The sum rate maximized resource allocation (RA) problem is addressed for this protocol under a total power constraint. It is shown that the novel protocol leads to a maximum sum rate greater than or equal to that for a benchmark one, which does not allow the source to implement beamforming at the subcarrier in the second slot for the relay-aided transmission. Then, a polynomial-complexity RA algorithm is developed to find an (at least approximately) optimum resource allocation (i.e., source/relay power, subcarrier pairing and assignment to users) for either the proposed or benchmark protocol. Numerical experiments illustrate that the novel protocol can lead to a greater sum rate than the benchmark one.