Differential Distributed Space-Time Modulation for Cooperative Networks

In this paper, we develop a protocol for the construction of cooperative networks when the channel state information is not available at the transmitters and the receivers. In the proposed protocol, differential space-time codewords are generated at the source terminal. In the broadcast phase, each row of the differential space-time codeword is transmitted to a different relay, whereas in the relay phase, the relaying terminals retransmit the codeword through simple amplify-and-forward algorithm. The performance of the cooperative diversity system is analyzed for a two-user case for different channel environments in. terms of the diversity gain and the diversity product. The optimization of the power allocation between source and relay terminals is considered for the maximization of the diversity product. When the same modulation scheme is used, the performance of differential detection is degraded by 3 dB noise enhancement compared with coherent detection