Ke Xiong

Wireless Information and Energy Transfer for Two-Hop Non-Regenerative MIMO-OFDM Relay Networks

This paper investigates the simultaneous wireless information and energy transfer for the non-regenerative multiple-input multiple-output orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) relaying system. By considering two practical receiver architectures, we present two protocols, time switching-based relaying (TSR) and power splitting-based relaying (PSR). To explore the system performance limits, we formulate two optimization problems to maximize the end-to-end achievable information rate with the full channel state information (CSI) assumption. Since both problems are non-convex and have no known solution method, we firstly derive some explicit results by theoretical analysis and then design effective algorithms for them. Numerical results show that the performances of both protocols are greatly affected by the relay position. Specifically, PSR and TSR show very different behaviors to the variation of relay position. The achievable information rate of PSR monotonically decreases when the relay moves from the source towards the destination, but for TSR, the performance is relatively worse when the relay is placed in the middle of the source and the destination. This is the first time such a phenomenon has been observed. In addition, it is also shown that PSR always outperforms TSR in such a MIMO-OFDM relaying system. Moreover, the effects of the number of antennas and the number of subcarriers are also discussed.

Optimal Cooperative Beamforming Design for MIMO Decode-and-Forward Relay Channels

In this paper, we consider a transmit beamforming design for multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) decode-and-forward (DF) half-duplex two-hop relay channels with a direct source-destination link. For the scenario where source and relay nodes are equipped with multiple antennas and the destination node is deployed with single antenna, we formulate and solve the optimal beamforming vectors for source and relay nodes jointly. Specifically, we identify several unique properties of the optimal solutions through mathematical derivation, based on which we develop a systematic approach to arrive at the optimal beamforming vectors for the source and relay nodes for different system configurations. We derive a low-complexity explicit expression for the optimal beamforming vectors for some specific scenarios. Numerical results show that our proposed beamforming design scheme can achieve the ε-optimal solution with low computational complexity for MIMO DF relay networks.

Space-Time Network Coding With Overhearing Relays

Space time network coding (STNC) is a recently proposed time-division multiple-access (TDMA)-based cooperative relaying scheme for multi-relay wireless systems, which can achieve full diversity order with low transmission delay by taking advantage of the concepts of network coding and distributed space time coding. However, STNC does not fully exploit the benefit of the broadcast nature of wireless channels, since it only allows relays to receive signals from the sources. To explore the potential capacity of STNC-based systems, in this paper, we propose a new cooperative relaying scheme, termed space-time network coding with overhearing relays (STNC-OR), by allowing each relay to collect the signals transmitted from not only the sources but also its previous relays. Then, we derive some explicit expressions for the outage probability and symbol error rate (SER) for STNC-OR with decode-and-forward relaying over independent non-identically distributed (i.n.i.d) Rayleigh fading channels. For comparison, we also derive the explicit expression of the outage probability for STNC. To further improve the performance of STNC-OR, we investigate the effect of relay ordering on the performance of STNC-OR and then present the optimal relay ordering algorithm. Further, a suboptimal relay ordering is also designed to reduce the complexity. Extensive simulation and numerical results are presented finally to validate our theoretical analysis. It is shown that the proposed STNC-OR achieves much lower outage probability and SER than STNC and traditional pure TDMA relaying schemes.

Optimal Power Allocation With Delay Constraint for Signal Transmission From a Moving Train to Base Stations in High-Speed Railway Scenarios

Widespread deployment of high-speed railways in recent years has created huge demand for high-mobility broadband wireless communications. To provide broadband wireless access for passengers on the train, a well-acknowledged approach is to apply a two-hop architecture, under which passengers communicate with base stations (BSs) via an access point (AP) installed in the train. We consider the uplink transmission from the AP to the BSs on the ground along the railway. The key problem we discuss is how to match user-data arrival process and time-varying channel service process with a delay constraint at the AP. We first assume the constant-rate data arrival and the wireless channel affected only by large-scale fading in high-speed railway scenarios. We present the optimal power-allocation policy given the delay constraint. Based on the policy, we show that there exists a power-delay tradeoff in our system model, with the delay within a limited range. Besides, we find that the average transmit power and the train velocity have a tradeoff, which is similar to the power-delay tradeoff. Besides, given average transmit power constraint, the delay constraint is inversely proportional to the train velocity. Finally, when small-scale fading is considered, we modify the optimal power-allocation policy and provide a convenient approach to counteract Nakagami-m fading in high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regimes. The modified power-allocation policy can be well adapted to different fading statistics in different terrestrial environments experienced by the high-speed train.

Simultaneous Wireless Information and Power Transfer in Cooperative Relay Networks With Rateless Codes

This paper investigates the simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) in cooperative relay networks, where a relay harvests energy from the radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted by a source and then uses the harvested energy to assist the information transmission from the source to its destination. Both source and relay transmissions use rateless codes (RCs), which allow the destination to employ any of the two information receiving strategies, i.e., the mutual information accumulation (IA) and the energy accumulation (EA). The SWIPT-enabled relay employs three different SWIPT receiver architectures, the ideal receiver, and two practical receivers (i.e., the power splitting (PS) receiver and the time switch (TS) receiver). Accordingly, three relaying protocols, namely, the ideal protocol, PS protocol, and TS protocol, are presented. To explore the system performance limits with these three protocols, optimization problems are formulated to maximize their achievable information rates. For the ideal protocol, explicit expressions of the optimal solutions are derived. For the PS protocol, a linear-search algorithm is designed to solve the nonconvex problems. For the TS protocol, two solving methods are presented. Numerical experiments are carried out to validate our analysis and algorithms, which show that, with the same SWIPT receiver, the IA-based system outperforms the EA-based system, whereas with the same information receiving strategy, the PS protocol outperforms the TS protocol. Moreover, compared with nonrateless-coded systems, the proposed protocols exhibit considerable performance gains. Moreover, the effects of the relay position on system performance are also discussed, which provides insights on SWIPT-enabled relay systems.

Energy Efficiency With Proportional Rate Fairness in Multirelay OFDM Networks

This paper investigates the energy efficiency (EE) in multiple relay-aided OFDM systems, where decode-and-forward (DF) relay beamforming is employed to help the information transmission. In order to explore the system performance behavior with user fairness for such a system, an optimization problem is formulated to maximize the EE by jointly considering multiple factors, i.e., the transmission mode selection (DF relay beamforming or direct-link transmission), the helping relay set selection, the subcarrier assignment and the power allocation at the source and relays on subcarriers, under nonlinear proportional rate fairness constraints, where both transmit power consumption and linearly rate-dependent circuit power consumption are taken into account. To solve the nonconvex optimization problem, we propose a low-complexity scheme to approximate it. Simulation results demonstrate its effectiveness. The effects of the circuit power consumption on system performance is also studied and it is observed that with either the constant or the linearly rate-dependent circuit power consumption, system EE grows with the increment of system average channel-to-noise ratio (CNR), but the growth rates show different behaviors. For the constant circuit power consumption, system EE increasing rate is an increasing function of the average CNR, while for the linearly rate-dependent one, system EE increasing rate is a decreasing function of the average CNR. This observation is very important, which indicates that by deducing the circuit dynamic power consumption per unit data rate, system EE can be greatly enhanced. Besides, we also discuss the effects of the number of users and subcarriers on the system EE performance.

Rate-Energy Region of SWIPT for MIMO Broadcasting Under Nonlinear Energy Harvesting Model

This paper explores the rate-energy (R-E) region of simultaneous wireless information and power transfer for MIMO broadcasting channel under the nonlinear radio frequency energy harvesting (EH) model. The goal is to characterize the tradeoff between the maximal energy transfer versus information rate. The separated EH and information decoding (ID) receivers and the co-located EH and ID receivers scenarios are considered. For the co-located receivers scenario, both time switching (TS) and power splitting (PS) receiver architectures are investigated. Optimization problems are formulated to derive the boundaries of the R-E region s for the considered systems. As the problems are nonconvex, we first transform them into equivalent ones and derive some semi-closed-form solutions, and then design efficient algorithms to solve them. Numerical results are provided to show the R-E region s of the systems, which provide some interesting insights. It is shown that all practical circuit specifications greatly affect the system R-E region. Compared with the systems under traditional linear EH model, the ones under the nonlinear EH model achieve smaller R-E region s due to the limitations of practical circuit features and also show very different R-E tradeoff behaviors.

Group Cooperation With Optimal Resource Allocation in Wireless Powered Communication Networks

This paper considers a wireless powered communication network (WPCN) with group cooperation, where two communication groups cooperate with each other via wireless power transfer and time sharing to fulfill their expected information delivering and achieve “win-win” collaboration. To explore the system performance limits, we formulate optimization problems to maximize the weighted sum-rate (WSR) and minimize the total consumed power. The time assignment, beamforming vector and power allocation are jointly optimized under available power and quality of service requirement constraints of both the groups. For the WSR-maximization, both fixed and flexible power scenarios are investigated. As all problems are non-convex and have no known solution methods, we solve them by using proper variable substitutions and the semi-definite relaxation. We theoretically prove that our proposed solution method guarantees the global optimum for each problem. Numerical results are presented to show the system performance behaviors, which provide some useful insights for future WPCN design. It shows that in such a group cooperation-aware WPCN, optimal time assignment has the greatest effect on the system performance than other factors.

Outage Analysis of Cooperative Transmission with Energy Harvesting Relay: Time Switching versus Power Splitting

This paper investigates the multiuser transmission network with an energy harvesting (EH) cooperative relay, where a source transmits independent information to multiple destinations with the help of an energy constrained relay. The relay can harvest energy from the radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted from the source, and it helps the multiuser transmission only by consuming the harvested energy. By adopting the time switching and the power splitting relay receiver architectures, we firstly propose two protocols, the time switching cooperative multiuser transmission (TSCMT) protocol and the power splitting cooperative multiuser transmission (PSCMT) protocol, to enable the simultaneous information processing and EH at the relay for the system. To evaluate the system performance, we theoretically analyze the system outage probability for the two proposed protocols and then derive explicit expressions for each of them, respectively. Numerical results are provided to demonstrate the accuracy of our analytical results and reveal that compared with traditional noncooperative scheme our proposed protocols are green solutions to offer reliable communication and lower system outage probability without consuming additional energy. In particular, for the same transmit power at the source, the PSCMT protocol is superior to the TSCMT protocol to obtain lower system outage probability.

Outage Probability of Space–Time Network Coding Over Rayleigh Fading Channels

In this paper, we analyze the outage probability of space-time network coding (STNC) in a distributed cooperative relaying system, where multiple sources transmit their information to a common destination with the help of multiple decode-and-forward (DF) relays in time-division multiple-access (TDMA) mode. We first derive an exact closed-form expression of the outage probability for STNC with an arbitrary number of relays for independent but not necessarily identically distributed (i.n.i.d.) Rayleigh fading channels. With the developed result, we discuss the impact of the transmit SNR, the outage threshold, the number of relays, the nonorthogonal codes, and the relay position on the system performance.