Rateless coded hybrid amplify/decode-forward cooperation for wireless multicast

We consider a cooperative wireless multicast channel with no channel state information available at the transmitters, and where all wireless links undergo independent identically distributed quasi-static Rayleigh fading. For cooperation, we propose a rateless coded approach and identify its benefits over a conventional fixed-rate two-hop strategy. In addition to providing robust communications under fading conditions, rateless coding is able to exploit the cooperation benefits to a greater degree. A hybrid rateless coded cooperation scheme is proposed which employs amplify-and-forward (AF) in conjunction with decode-and-forward (DF) strategy. Results based on Monte-Carlo simulations indicate that the rateless coded hybrid scheme is able to significantly outperform two-hop cooperation, as well as the individual AF and DF strategies.