Cloud-Driven Multi-Way Multiple-Antenna Relay Systems: Joint Detection, Best-User-Link Selection and Analysis

In this work, we present a cloud-driven uplink framework for multi-way multiple-antenna relay systems which aids joint symbol detection in the cloud and where users are selected to simultaneously transmit to each other aided by relays. We also investigate relay selection techniques for the proposed cloud-driven uplink framework that uses cloud-based buffers and XOR network coding. In particular, we develop a novel multi-way relay selection protocol based on the selection of the best link, denoted as Multi-Way Cloud-Driven Best-User-Link (MWC-Best-User-Link). We then devise maximum-minimum-distance and channel-norm based relay selection criteria along with algorithms that are incorporated into the proposed MWC-Best-User-Link protocol. An analysis of the proposed MWC-Best-User-Link protocol in terms of computational cost, pairwise error probability, sum-rate and average delay is carried out. Simulations show that MWC-Best-User-Link outperforms previous works in terms of sum-rate, pairwise error probability, average delay and bit error rate.