Optimal Power Allocation in Multi-Relay MIMO Cooperative Networks: Theory and Algorithms

Cooperative networking is known to have significant potential in increasing network capacity and transmission reliability. Although there have been extensive studies on applying cooperative networking in multi-hop ad hoc networks, most works are limited to the basic three-node relay scheme and single-antenna systems. These two limitations are interconnected and both are due to a limited theoretical understanding of the optimal power allocation structure in MIMO cooperative networks (MIMO-CN). In this paper, we study the structural properties of the optimal power allocation in MIMO-CN with per-node power constraints. More specifically, we show that the optimal power allocations at the source and each relay follow a matching structure in MIMO-CN. This result generalizes the power allocation result under the basic three-node setting to the multi-relay setting, for which the optimal power allocation structure has been heretofore unknown. We further quantify the performance gain due to cooperative relay and establish a connection between cooperative relay and pure relay. Finally, based on these structural insights, we reduce the MIMO-CN rate maximization problem to an equivalent scalar formulation. We then propose a global optimization method to solve this simplified and equivalent problem.