A Distributed Beamforming-Based Cooperative Multiplexing Protocol and Its Outage Performance

A distributed cooperative multiplexing (DCM) protocol is proposed that offers advantages over cooperative multiplexing protocols. It uses cooperative beamforming with multiple distributed relays to avoid use of interference cancellation at the user terminals. An approximate expression is derived for its outage performance. The protocol is shown to be power efficient, besides leading to increase in coverage area. Computer simulation results are presented to demonstrate the performance of the protocol, and to validate the analytical expressions.