Orthogonal decode and forward relaying with improved spectral efficiency

Cooperative relay communications can significantly improve the reliability of data transmission over wireless fading channels by implementing spatial diversity in a distributed fashion. Orthogonal decode and forward (ODF) relaying achieves maximum diversity provided by the source-destination and relay destination channels, but suffers from low spectral efficiency. We propose a novel ODF protocol having higher spectral efficiency without sacrificing the diversity gain. We analyze the symbol error probability of the proposed protocol and also present simulation results.