Performance Analysis of Energy Assisted Relaying Techniques in Cooperative Wireless Networks

Future 5G wireless networks demands for higher energy efficiency and spectral efficiency. To improve the energy efficiency of the wireless networks over fading channels, RF energy harvesting technique can be employed. In this paper, Energy-assisted Amplify and Forward (EAF) cooperative relay protocol has been proposed. To minimize the energy consumption of the battery, Power-Splitting (PS) based Simultaneous Wireless Information and Power Transfer (SWIPT) technique has been adopted in the relay nodes of cooperative wireless networks. The PS technique splits the received signal from the Access Point (AP) into two streams of different power. First stream goes to the information receiver module and the next stream goes to the energy harvester module in the relay. Analytical model and equations have been developed for the performance parameters such as capacity and throughput of the EAF protocol and they have been compared with the Energy-assisted Decode and Forward (EDF) protocol using MATLAB R2013a. It is observed that the capacity and throughput of the EAF relay protocol is 8.6% and 45% better than the EDF relay protocol respectively.