First-hop-quality-aware dynamic resource allocation for amplify-and-forward opportunistic relaying assisted SC-FDMA

In this paper we exploit the benefits of the diversity gains arising from a cluster of opportunistic relays (OR) and from the independently fading subcarriers of multiple users. Our goal is to improve the energy-efficiency of the OR assisted single-carrier frequency-division multiple-access (SC-FDMA) uplink using amplify-and-forward (AF), where the direct transmission (DT) link is unavailable. By assuming that the pilot aided channel quality information (CQI) of all the users may be exchanged amongst the cooperating relays, we propose two joint dynamic resource allocation (DRA) schemes based on the so-called ‘first-hop quality awareness’. Our results demonstrate that compared to the DT benchmark, the proposed joint DRA schemes are capable of achieving a power reduction of 10dB for a single-antenna base station (BS) receiver, albeit for a multi-antenna BS the power-reduction remains more modest.