Single-user performance of direct-sequence code-division multiple-access using relay diversity and power allocation

In this contribution, the authors investigate the single-user-bound performance of a direct-sequence code-division multiple-access (DS-CDMA) system, where one source mobile terminal (MT) communicates with its base-station (BS) with the assistance of multiple relays. The authors assume that the communications channels experience both propagation pathloss and fast fading, and that the channels from the source MT to the BS and relays as well as that from the relays to the BS may experience different fast fading modelled correspondingly by Nakagami-m distributions. In the study, they assume both the single-user combining using maximal ratio combining and the multiuser combining, which are derived based on the maximum signal-to- interference-plus-noise ratio criterion. The bit-error-rate (BER) performance of the DS-CDMA is investigated associated with considering the locations of the relays as well as the power-allocation among the source MT and relays. From the study and simulation results, it can be shown that the achievable BER performance of the DS-CDMA depends on the locations of the relays and also on the power-allocation among the source MT and relays. When the relays of a source MT are chosen from a different area, the power-allocation should also be adjusted correspondingly in order to achieve the minimum BER. Furthermore, when optimum power- allocation is assumed, the BER performance of the DS-CDMA can be significantly improved, when increasing the number of relays assisting the source MT.