Transmit Optimization for Relay-Based Cellular OFDMA Systems

This paper considers a broadband cellular orthogonal frequency-division multiple-access (OFDMA) system with relay nodes operating in decode-and-forward and half-duplex mode. Two transmit resource allocation problems for sum-rate maximization are formulated for such a system. The first one is the optimization of subcarrier allocation with predetermined power assignment for each subcarrier, and the other is the joint optimization of power and subcarrier allocation. Since these problems can't be solved easily in direct forms, we make continuous relaxation and solve the dual problems using a subgradient method. Numerical results show that a remarkable increment in sum-rate is achieved, with the aid of relay nodes and sophisticated resource allocation, compared to a system without relay nodes.