Joint relay selection and power allocation in cooperative FSO networks

Cooperative diversity is considered as an effective means for combating weather turbulence in FSO networks. We investigate the problem of maximizing the FSO network-wide throughput under constraint of a given power budget and a number of FSO transceivers. The problem is formulated as a Mixed Integer Nonlinear Programming (MINLP) problem. We propose both centralized and distributed algorithms using bipartite matching and convex optimization to obtain highly competitive solutions. The proposed algorithms are shown to outperform the non-cooperative scheme and an existing relay selection protocol with considerable gains through simulations.