On Selection Cooperation in Distributed Networks

We argue for selection cooperation as an alternative to distributed space-time block coded (DSTBC) transmissions and other maximal ratio combining (MRC)-based schemes in cooperative wireless systems. While MRC is optimal in traditional receive diversity schemes, we show that in distributed networks, where transmitting nodes have a power constraint, selection cooperation outperforms MRC-based protocols. We present two different relay selection schemes based on available centralization and computing power and show that even the simplest selection scheme outperforms DSTBC in terms of outage probability.