Channel and queue aware joint relay selection and resource allocation for MISO-OFDMA based user-relay assisted cellular networks

Abstract

User-relay assisted orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) networks are cost-effective solutions to meet the growing capacity and coverage demands of the next generation cellular networks. These networks can be used with multiple antennas technology in order to obtain a diversity gain to combat signal fading and to obtain more capacity gain without increasing the bandwidth or transmit power. Efficient relay selection and resource allocation are crucial in such a multi-user, multi-relay and multi-antenna environment to fully exploit the benefits of the combination of user-relaying and multiple antennas technology. Thus, we propose a channel and queue aware joint relay selection and resource allocation algorithm for multiple-input single-output (MISO)-OFDMA based user-relay assisted downlink cellular networks. Since, the proposed algorithm is not only channel but also queue-aware, the system resources are allocated efficiently among the users. The proposed algorithm for the MISO-OFDMA based user-relay assisted scheme is compared to existing MISO-OFDMA based non-relaying and fixed relay assisted schemes and it is also compared with the existing single-input single-output (SISO)-OFDMA based user-relay assisted scheme. Simulation results revealed that the proposed scheme outperforms the existing schemes in terms of cell-edge users’ total data rate, average backlog and average delay.