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2216 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 63, NO.

5, JUNE 2014

Error-Rate Performance Analysis of


Cooperative OFDMA System With
Decode-and-Forward Relaying
Muhammad Mehboob Fareed, Member, IEEE, Murat Uysal, Senior Member, IEEE, and
Theodoros A. Tsiftsis, Senior Member, IEEE

Abstract—In this paper, we investigate the performance provements in spectral efficiency, link reliability, and extended
of a cooperative orthogonal frequency-division multiple-access coverage (see, e.g., [3]–[5]).
(OFDMA) system with decode-and-forward (DaF) relaying. Spec- Orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) is
ifically, we derive a closed-form approximate symbol-error-rate
expression and analyze the achievable diversity orders. Depending an extension of the OFDM to the multiuser environment in
on the relay location, a diversity order up to (LSk D + 1) + which disjoint sets of carriers are assigned to different users. In
M a multiuser cooperative communication system, multiple users
m=1
min(LSk Rm + 1, LRm D + 1) is available, where M
is the number of relays, and LSk D + 1, LSk Rm + 1, and share relays and the spectrum. Cooperative OFDMA networks
LRm D + 1 are the lengths of channel impulse responses of have been investigated by several authors with a particular
source-to-destination, source-to-mth relay, and mth relay-to- focus on optimum resource allocation [6]–[13]. In [6], Guoqing
destination links, respectively. Monte Carlo simulation results are
also presented to confirm the analytical findings.
and Hui have formulated an optimal source/relay/subcarrier-
allocation problem to maximize the achievable sum rate with
Index Terms—Error rate, orthogonal frequency-division a fairness constraint on relay nodes. In [7], Ng and Yu have
multiple access (OFDMA), power allocation, relay channels.
considered an OFDMA cooperative cellular data network with
a base station and a number of subscribers that have the ability
I. I NTRODUCTION
to relay information to each other. Aiming to maximize the
sum of the utility function (i.e., the achievable data rate),
C OOPERATIVE communication builds upon the notion of
broadcasting in wireless transmission and creates a virtual
antenna array through cooperating nodes, which are willing to
they have presented a centralized utility maximization frame-
work where relay selection, choice of relay strategy (i.e., DaF
act as relay nodes to each other [1], [2]. Two main relaying versus AaF), and allocation of power, bandwidth, and user
techniques are amplify-and-forward (AaF) and decode-and- traffic demands are considered optimization parameters. In [8],
forward (DaF) relaying. In the latter, the relay node fully Pischella and Belfiore have studied resource allocation for
decodes, reencodes, and retransmits the source node’s message. the downlink of an OFDMA-based single-hop system. In [9],
In the former, the relay retransmits a scaled version of the Kim et al. have investigated cross-layer approaches for
received signal with no attempt to decode it. OFDMA multihop wireless networks to maximize the mini-
The growing attention in the current literature on cooperative mum end-to-end throughput among all the nodes under rout-
communications focuses on the design and analysis of co- ing and physical/medium access control constraints. In [10],
operative orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) Zhang and Lau have proposed a distributed subband-allocation
systems. OFDM has been already adopted by various industry algorithm for a cooperative OFDMA system that uses only
standards such as IEEE802.11 (WiFi) and 802.16 (WiMAX) in local information at the destination node. In [11], Zhang et al.
point-to-point links. Its integration with cooperative transmis- have proposed a dynamic subcarrier-allocation rule based on
sion opens up new possibilities in system design, providing im- the formulation of a utility-based optimization problem. In [12],
Bakim and Kaya have considered various encoding strategies
for a two-user cooperative OFDMA system and obtained ex-
Manuscript received October 10, 2012; revised April 8, 2013, July 23, 2013, pressions for the achievable rate regions.
and September 29, 2013; accepted October 31, 2013. Date of publication
November 13, 2013; date of current version June 12, 2014. The review of this
As briefly summarized, the existing works mainly address
paper was coordinated by Dr. T. Jiang. resource-allocation problems based on the rate maximization
M. M. Fareed is with the Computer, Electrical, and Mathematical Science under different constraints and have not provided a detailed
and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technol-
ogy, Thuwal 23955, Saudi Arabia (e-mail: muhammad.fareed@kaust.edu.sa).
error-rate analysis of the cooperative OFDMA network. One
M. Uysal is with the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, exception is [13], in which Yu and Sun have derived an upper
Özyeğin University, Istanbul 34662, Turkey (e-mail: murat.uysal@ozyegin. bound on the bit error rate and investigated optimum power
edu.tr).
T. A. Tsiftsis is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Technolog- allocation between sources and a relay. Their work is how-
ical Educational Institute of Central Greece, 35100 Lamia, Greece (e-mail: ever limited to the single-relay case and ignores the direct
tsiftsis@teilam.gr). link between a source and a destination. Furthermore, they
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. utilize no precoding in source-to-relay link, which reduces the
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TVT.2013.2290780 overall diversity to one. In this paper, we derive a closed-form

0018-9545 © 2013 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
FAREED et al.: ERROR-RATE PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF COOPERATIVE OFDMA SYSTEM WITH DaF RELAYING 2217

delay profile, the elements of hAB are assumed to be inde-


pendent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) zero-mean Gaussian
random variables with a variance of 1/(LAB + 1).
OFDMA, along with linear constellation precoding [15],
is used to combat frequency selectivity of the channel and
to eliminate interference between the transmitting nodes. We
assume a total number of N orthogonal frequency carriers,
and each source is assigned N/K carriers. N is chosen large
enough such that N/K is greater than the maximum of the
channel lengths.
The transmission takes place in two phases. In the first
Fig. 1. System model. phase, the source nodes transmit their information using the
nonoverlapping carriers assigned to them. The received signals
approximate symbol-error-rate (SER) expression for the uplink rD0 at the destination and rm at the mth relay m = 1, 2, . . . , M
of a precoded OFDMA cooperative network with K sources are given by
and M relays. Based on the derived SER expression, we
demonstrate that achievable diversity order for each source- 
K

to-destination communication link can take different values rD0 = GSk D PSk HSk D QH Ck Θk xk + nD0 (1)
k=1
depending on the location of relay nodes. We further present
a comprehensive Monte Carlo simulation study to corroborate 
K

our analytical results. rm = GSk Rm PSk HSk Rm QH Ck Θk xk + nm (2)
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. In k=1

Section II, we introduce the relay-assisted channel and trans- where the related variables are defined as follows:
mission model for OFDMA system. In Section III, we de-
rive a SER expression for the system under consideration. In • PSk is the fraction of the total power P assigned to the kth
Section IV, we present a diversity order analysis based on source node. For equal power allocation among source and
the derived SER for representative scenarios. In Section V, relay nodes, we have PSk = P/(M + K).
we present Monte Carlo simulation results to corroborate the • xk ∈ Cnk is the signal vector transmitted by the kth
analytical results. Finally, Section VI concludes this paper. source node. Constellation set C is either chosen as an
Notation: (·)∗ , (·)H , and  · F denote conjugate, Hermitian M -ary phase-shift keying or M -ary quadrature amplitude
transpose, and Frobenius norm operations, respectively. Ex [·] modulation (M-QAM), and nk is the number of symbols
denotes expectation with respect to random variable x. Q is an transmitted by the kth source. It is also assumed that the
N × N fast Fourier source nodes can select different modulation types.
√ transform matrix with elements given by • Θk is the grouped linear constellation precoding matrix
Q(m, n) = (1/ N ) exp(−j2π(m − 1)(n − 1)/N ), m; n =
1, . . . , N . IN is an N × N identity matrix. HAB = circ(hAB ) of size nk × nk , as defined in [15]. The subcarriers as-
is a circulant channel matrix with elements HAB (i, j) = signed to the kth source node are divided into groups
hAB ((i − j) mod N ), i; j = 0, 1, . . . , N − 1. VAB is a N × g = 1, 2, . . . , Gk before precoding, where Gk is chosen
(LAB + 1) matrix with elements VAB (a, b) = exp(−2πj(a − such that each group has a length equal to the maximum
1)(b − 1)/N ), a = 1, 2, . . . , N ; b = 1, 2, . . . , LAB + 1. n ∼ channel length.
CN(0, IN ) denotes a vector of length N , where each element • Ck is the carrier mapping matrix of size N × nk , which
is an independent complex Gaussian random variable with zero contains all zero elements, except for one nonzero element
mean and unit variance. in each row. Ck (i, j) = 1 is used to map the ith carrier
to the jth data symbol of xk . It is assumed that carrier
assignments to different source nodes are predetermined.
II. C HANNEL AND T RANSMISSION M ODEL • nD0 and nm represent the additive Gaussian noise
terms, i.e., nD0 ∼ CN(0, IN ), and nm ∼ CN(0, IN ),
We consider the uplink of a broadband wireless commu-
m = 1, 2, . . . , M.
nication system where K source nodes send their informa-
• GSk Rm and GRm D represent the geometrical gains (due
tion to a single destination with the help of M relays (see
to different path losses) [16] of the links Sk → Rm and
Fig. 1). We assume that all the transmitting nodes use the
Rm → D relative to the link S1 → D, respectively.1
same modulation type. We employ DaF relaying and as-
sume that all nodes are equipped with single antennas oper- At the destination and the relay nodes, received signals
ating in half-duplex mode. Underlying communication links are premultiplied by Q. By this premultiplication along with
are assumed to be subject to quasi-static frequency-selective introduction of cyclic prefix, OFDM converts the transmission
Rayleigh fading. We consider the symbol-spaced tapped de- into the set of parallel channels with nonoverlapping subsets
lay line model [14] to represent the multipath channel. Let assigned to different source nodes. The coefficients of these
hAB = [hAB (0), hAB (1), . . . , hAB (LAB )]T denote the impulse
response for the channel between nodes A and B. Under the 1 Without loss of generality, we assume that S1 is the most distant source
assumption of Rayleigh distributed fading and a uniform power from the destination.
2218 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 63, NO. 5, JUNE 2014

parallel channels are the frequency responses of channels evalu- αk (m) that represents the outcome of decoding at the relay
ated at the assigned carrier frequencies. After premultiplication nodes, i.e.,
by Q, we have 
1, no decoding error in message from Sm at R
αk (m)=

K
 0, otherwise.
zD0 = QrD0 = ΓSk D DSk D Ck Θk xk + QnD0 (3) (8)
k=1 Then SER for the kth source node can be calculated as


K
 Pk (e) = [Pr(Ak )Pk (e|Ak )] (9)
zm = Qrm = ΓSk Rm DSk Rm Ck Θk xk + Qnm (4) ∀Ak
k=1
where
where ΓSk D = GSk D PSk , ΓSk Rm = GSk Rm PSk , DSk D = ⎧ ⎫⎧ ⎫
QHSk D QH , and DSk Rm = QHSk Rm QH . ⎨ ⎬⎨ ⎬
During the relaying phase, only the relay nodes that are able Pr(Ak ) = PSk Rm (e) PSk Rm (c)
⎩ ⎭⎩ ⎭
to correctly decode2 the received information are permitted to ∀αk (m)=0 ∀αk (m)=1
forward them to the destination. The relays transmit one-by-one (10)
in M orthogonal time slots.3 It is assumed that the source nodes and Pk (e|Ak ) is the conditional SER at the destination node,
are silent during the relaying phase. Let Δ be the set of relays PSk Rm (e) is the probability of error in the Sk → Rm link, and
that are able to decode correctly, and let δ be the cardinality of PSk Rm (c) is the probability of error-free transmission in the
the set Δ. The received signals at the destination are given by Sk → Rm link. In the following, we provide details on how
 Pk (e|Ak ) and PSk Rm (e) can be calculated.
rDm = ΓRm D HRm D QH xm + nDm ∀m ∈ Δ (5) Calculation of Pk (e|Ak ): Pk (e|Ak ) can be calculated using
the union bound [17] as
where ΓRm D = GRm D PRm and the related variables are de-
fined as follows.  p(xk ) 
Pk (e|Ak ) ≤ q(xk → x̄k ) Pr(xk → x̄k |Ak )
1) PRm is the fraction of total power P assigned to the mth nk
x k xk
=x̄k
relay node.
 (11)
2) xm = K k=1 Ck Θk x̂m,k with x̂m,k denoting the de- where p(xk ) is the probability that codeword xk is transmitted,
coded message of the kth source node at the mth relay q(xk → x̄k ) is the number of information symbol errors in
node. choosing another codeword x̄k instead of the original one, and
After premultiplication by Q, we have nk is the number of information symbols per transmission. In
(11), Pr(xk → x̄k ) is the pairwise error probability (PEP) and
zDm = QrDm denotes the probability of deciding in favor of x̄k instead of xk .
 From (3) and (6), the PEP for the kth source is given by
= ΓRm D DRm D xm + QnDm (6)  
Pr(xk → x̄k |Ak ) = EhSk D ,hRm D Q( γSk D + γk,RD )
∀ m = 1, 2, . . . , M , where DRm D = QHRm D QH . A total of (12)
δ + 1 (recall that δ is the cardinality of Δ) signals in (3) and (6) where
are combined at the destination by maximal-ratio combining
(MRC) before performing maximum-likelihood decoding. γSk D = ΓSk D DSk D yk F

γk,RD = ΓRm D DRm D yk F
∀αk (m)=1
III. D ERIVATION OF S YMBOL E RROR R ATE
Here, we derive an SER expression for the OFDMA system and yk = Ck Θk (xk − x̄k ). Using the Cherrnoff bound in (12),
under consideration. Overall, the SER of the system is given by we obtain
1   γ 
S D

K
nk Pr(xk → x̄k |Ak ) ≤ EhSk D exp − k
Pe = Pk (e) (7) 2  2 γ 
N k,RD
k=1 × EhRm D exp − . (13)
2
where Pk (e) is the SER for the transmission between the kth By defining USk D = diag(yk )VSk D , we get γSk D = ΓSk D
source node and the destination. To calculate Pk (e), let Ak = hH H
Sk D USk D USk D hSk D . The first term on the right side of (13)
{αk (1), αk (2), . . . , αk (M )} denote the set of M variables can be evaluated as
  γ  L Sk D  −1
S D ΓS D
EhSk D exp − k
2 In practice, this can be done through an error detection mechanism such as = 1 + λiSk D k
cyclic redundancy check (CRC). 2 i=0
2
3 Alternatively, distributed space–time block codes can be used by the relay
nodes to facilitate simultaneous transmission. However, this will potentially
increase the system complexity, and it can possibly reduce the throughput as where λiSk D , i = 0, 1, . . . , LSk D are the eigenvalues of UH
Sk D
rate-one codes are available for two transmitters only. USk D . In a similar fashion, we can take expectation of the
FAREED et al.: ERROR-RATE PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF COOPERATIVE OFDMA SYSTEM WITH DaF RELAYING 2219

second term of (13). Replacing the resulting expressions in (13), Pr(xk →  x k |hSk Rm ) is the PEP for the Sk → Rm link and
we have denotes the probability of deciding in favor of x k.
LSk D  −1 We now return to the calculation of Pk (e). Inserting the upper
1 ΓS k D bound expressions (15) and (16) in (9) and noting PSk Rm (c) =
Pr(xk → x̄k |Ak ) ≤ i
1 + λSk D
2 i=0 2 1 − PSk Rm (e), we obtain an approximate Pk (e) given by (17),
⎡ ⎤
LR m D  −1 shown at the bottom of the page. Finally, replacing (17) in (7)
ΓR D
× ⎣ 1 + λiRm D m ⎦ (14) yields an approximation of the overall SER.
2
∀αk (m)=1 i=0

where λiRm D , i = 0, 1, . . . , LRm D denote the eigenvalues of IV. D IVERSITY G AIN A NALYSIS
URm D URm D associated with the Rm → D link. Inserting (14)
H
Here, we discuss the achievable diversity orders through the
in (11), we get derived SER expression. Note that the SER is dominated by
the shortest error. Let λiSk D and λiRm D denote the eigenvalues
Pk (e|Ak ) corresponding to the shortest error event.
 p(xk )
≤ Case 1—Relays Are in the Middle (i.e., ΓSk Rm ≈ ΓRm D ):
2nk In this case, we can approximate the upper bound on
xk ⎡
LSk D  −1 Pk (e|Ak ) as
 ΓS k D
× ⎣ q(xk → x̄k ) i
1 + λSk D ∼
xk
=x̄k i=0
2 Pk (e|Ak ) < C1 Γ−(LSk D +1) Γ−(LRm D +1) (18)
⎧ ⎫⎤
Rm D −1 ⎬ ∀ αk (m)=1
⎨L Γ
× 1+λiRm D m
R D ⎦.
⎩ 2 ⎭ assuming high SNR and Γ := ΓSk D ≈ ΓSk R ≈ ΓRm D , where
∀αk (m)=1i=0 ⎡
LSk D  i −1
(15)  p(xk )  λS D
C1 = ⎣q(xk → x̄k ) k

Calculation of PSk Rm (e): The probability of error in the 2nk 2


xk xk
=x̄k
Sk → Rm link PSk Rm (e) can be calculated following the sim- ⎧ i=0  −1 ⎫⎤
ilar steps used for the calculation of Pk (e|Ak ). An upper bound ⎨L Rm D
λiRm D ⎬
× ⎦.
for PSk Rm (e) can be calculated by using the union bound [16] ⎩ 2 ⎭
∀ αk (m)=1 i=0
and the Chernoff bound as given by
 Under these assumptions, we further have
1  
PSk Rm (e) ≤ EhSk Rm p(xk ) q(xk → 
x k) ∼
nk x PSk Rm (e) < C2 Γ−(LSk Rm +1) (19)
xk
=
k xk

with
× Pr(xk → 
x k |hSk Rm )
LSk R m  −1
 p(xk )   p(xk )  λiSk Rm
≤ q(xk → 
x k) C2 = q(xk → x̄k ) .
2nk 2nk 2
xk xk
=x̄k i=0
xk xk
=
  xk

ΓS R DSk Rm yk F
× EhSk Rm exp − k m Inserting these approximations in (17), Pk (e) becomes
2
 p(xk )  Pk (e)
= q(xk → x k )

2nk  ≈ C1 Γ−(⎡L⎧Sk D +1) ⎫
x k xk
=x k


LSk R m −1  ⎨ ⎬
ΓS k R m × ⎣ C2 Γ−(LSk Rm +1)
× 1 + λiSk Rm . (16) ⎩ ⎭
2 ∀ Ak ∀ αk (m)=0
i=0 ⎤
 
In (16), λiSk Rm , i = 0, 1, . . . , LSk Rm are the eigenvalues of × 1 − C2 Γ−(LSk Rm +1) Γ−(LRm D +1) ⎦ .
UH
S k R m US k R m with USk Rm = diag(Θk (xk −  x k ))VSk Rm . ∀ αk (m)=1

⎡⎧ ⎛  −1 ⎞⎫
 ⎨  p(xk )  LSk R m
λi ΓS k R m ⎬
Pk (e) ≈ ⎣ ⎝ q(xk → 
x k) 1 + S k Rm ⎠
⎩ 2nk 2 ⎭
∀Ak ∀αk (m)=0 xk xk
=
xk i=0
⎧ ⎛ −1 ⎞⎫⎤
⎨ p(x )  LSk D  −1 

λiSk D ΓSk D
LR m D
λiRm D ΓRm D
×
k
q(xk → x̄k ) 1+ ⎝ 1+ ⎠ ⎦. (17)
⎩ x 2nk 2 2 ⎭
k xk
=x̄k
i=0 ∀αk (m)=1 i=0
2220 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 63, NO. 5, JUNE 2014

Noting that (1 − C2 Γ−(LSk Rm +1) )Γ−(LRm D +1) is dominated We can approximate Pk (e) by assuming a sufficiently high
by the second term for high SNR values, we can further SNR as
approximate Pk (e) as ⎛ ⎞
LSk D

M
LR m D
⎡ ⎤ Pk (e) ≈ C3 (Γ)−1 ⎝ (Γ)−1 ⎠ (25)

Pk (e) ≈ C1 Γ−(LSk D +1) ⎣ C2 Γ−(LSk Rm +1) ⎦ i=0 m=1 i=0

∀ Ak
⎡ ∀ αk (m)=0 ⎤ where
⎡  −1
LSk D
×⎣ Γ−(LRm D +1) ⎦ . (20)  p(xk )  λiSk D
C3 = ⎣q(xk → x̄k )
∀ αk (m)=1 2nk 2
xk xk
=x̄k i=0
⎛   ⎞⎤
−1
After some mathematical manipulations, we have
M
LR m D
λiRm D
× ⎝ ⎠⎦ . (26)
  2
Pk (e) ≈ C1 Γ−(LSk D +1) × C2 Γ−(LSk R1 +1) + Γ−(LR1 D +1) m=1 i=0
⎛ ⎞
 This shows that a diversity order of d = (LSk D + 1) +
M
× ⎝ C2 ⎠ Γ−E0 (21) m=1 (LRm D + 1) is achievable.
∀ Ak−1 ∀ αk (m)=0 Case 3—Relays Close to Destination (i.e., ΓRm D
ΓSk Rm = ΓSk D = Γ): If relay-to-destination links have very
where Ak−1 is defined as the set with all the elements of Ak , good SNRs i.e., ΓRm D ΓSk R , the SER in these links be-
except the first element, and E0 is given by comes negligible. Therefore, all the terms in the outer sum-
  mation of (9) become zero, except for the first term, which
E0 = (LSk Rm + 1) + (LRm D + 1) . corresponds to Ak = {αk (m) = 0, ∀ m}. The overall SER is
∀αk (m)=0 ∀αk (m)=1
then given by
m=1 m=1
⎛ ⎞
LSk D LSk R m

M
Noting that diversity is determined by the term with the small- Pk (e) ≈ (Γ)−1 ⎝ Γ−1 ⎠
est negative power, we can use Γ−(LSk R1 +1) + Γ−(LR1 D +1) ≈ i=0 m=1 i=0
⎧ −1 ⎫
Γ− min(LSk R1 +1,LR1 D +1) since, with (21), it becomes ⎨ p(x )  LSk D  i ⎬
k
λS D
× q(xk → x̄k ) k

Pk (e) ≈ C1 C2 Γ−(LSk D +1) Γ− min



(LSk R1 +1,LR1 D +1)

⎩ x 2nk
xk
=x̄k i=0
2 ⎭
k


× ⎝ C2 ⎠ Γ−E0 . (22)
M
⎜ p(xk )  
∀ Ak−1 ∀ αk (m)=0
× ⎝ q(xk → x k )
m=1 xk
2n k 
xk
=x k
Similar to the given equation, by defining Ak−n , n = 1, 2, LSk R m  −1 ⎞
λiSk Rm
. . . M as the set with all the of Ak , except the first n elements, × ⎠. (27)
by rearranging terms, and by repeating the given steps, we i=0
2
finally obtain
This can be further approximated as
⎡ ⎛ ⎞⎤ $ M %
 − L
Pk (e) ≈ C4 Γ ( Sk D )
+1 + (LSk Rm +1) (28)
Pk (e) ≈ ⎣C1 ⎝ C2 ⎠⎦ Γ−(LSk D +1)
m=1

∀ Ak ∀ αk (m)=0 where
M ⎧ −1 ⎫
LSk D  i
× Γ− m=1
min(LSk Rm +1,LRm D +1)
. (23) ⎨ p(x ) 
k
λ ⎬
Sk D
C4 = q(xk → x̄k )
⎩ x 2nk 2 ⎭
The given result shows that a diversity order of d = (LSk D + xk
=x̄k i=0
 ⎛k  −1⎞
1) + M m=1 min(LSk Rm + 1, LRm D + 1) is achievable.
M  p(xk )  LSk R m
i
λS k Rm
Case 2—Relays Close to Source (i.e., ΓSk R ΓRm D = × ⎝ q(xk → x k) ⎠.
2nk  2
ΓSk D = Γ): If all source-to-relay links have very good SNRs, m=1 x k xk
=x k i=0
i.e., ΓSk R ΓRm D , the SER in these links becomes negligibly
small. In this case, all the terms in the outer summation of (9)  be observed that a diversity order of d =
From (28), it can
(LSk D + 1) + M m=1 (LSk Rm + 1) is achievable.
become zero, except for the last term, which corresponds to
Ak = {αk (m) = 1, ∀ m}, resulting in an overall SER as
V. N UMERICAL R ESULTS AND D ISCUSSION

LSk D  −1
 p(xk )  Γ Here, we present Monte Carlo simulations to confirm our an-
Pk (e) ≈ ⎣q(xk → x̄k ) 1+λiSk D alytically derived SER expressions and diversity orders. We fur-
2nk 2
xk xk
=x̄k i=0 ther present simulation results to demonstrate the performance
⎛ ⎞⎤
LR m D  −1 improvements through power allocation. In our simulations,

M Γ
× ⎝ 1+λiRm D ⎠⎦ . (24) we assume 4-QAM modulation, and the number of carriers is
m=1 i=0
2 chosen as N = 64.
FAREED et al.: ERROR-RATE PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF COOPERATIVE OFDMA SYSTEM WITH DaF RELAYING 2221

Fig. 2. Comparison of simulated and analytical SER for the system with two
and three source nodes. One, two, and three relays are assumed. To confirm Fig. 4. Simulated SER for a system with two source nodes and a single relay
the slope of the simulated SERs, the performance curves for point-to-point for GS1 R1 /GR1 D = 30 dB assuming various values of (LS1 R1 , LR1 D ).
transmission with 6, 9, and 12 colocated receive antennas assuming MRC are
provided as benchmarks.

Fig. 5. Simulated SER for a system with two source nodes and a single relay
for GS1 R1 /GR1 D = −30 dB assuming various values of (LS1 R1 , LR1 D ).
Fig. 3. Simulated SER for the system with two source nodes and a single relay
for GS1 R1 /GR1 D = 0 dB assuming various values of (LS1 R1 , LR1 D ). nel lengths (LS1 R1 , LR1 D ) = (2, 2), (LS1 R1 , LR1 D ) = (1, 2),
(LS1 R1 , LR1 D ) = (1, 2), and (LS1 R1 , LR1 D ) = (1, 1), while
In Fig. 2, we present the comparison of simulated and analyt-
LSD = 2 for all four scenarios. To compare and verify the
ical SER curves obtained for different numbers of relays. Due
slopes of the simulated SERs, the performance curves for
to simulation time involved, simulation results are provided
point-to-point transmission with five and six colocated receive
up to 10−6 . On the other hand, analytical plots are provided
antennas, assuming MRC are provided as benchmarks.
for a wider range to better reflect the slope of the curves. We
In Fig. 3, shown for GS1 R1 /GR1 D = 0 dB, a diversity
consider two source nodes, both of which are equidistant from
order of 6 is achieved only for (LS1 R1 , LR1 D ) = (2, 2); for
the destination node, and assume relay node(s) is (are) closer
other three cases, we observe a diversity order of 5. This
to source nodes. Each link is assumed to have the same channel
confirms our earlier derived result, i.e., d = (LSk D +1)+
length equal to 2. It is shown in Fig. 2 that simulated and derived M
results yield the same slopes. It can be checked that a diversity m=1 min(LSk Rm +1, LRm D +1). In Fig. 4, we assume
GS1 R1 /GR1 D = 30 dB. In this case, a diversity order of 6 is
order of six, nine, and 12 are achieved for one, two, and three
achieved for the first two cases, i.e., (LS1 R1 , LR1 D ) = (2, 2)
relays,4 respectively.
and (LS1 R1 , LR1 D ) = (1, 2), but for the other two cases with
Figs. 3–5 present the simulated SER for different values
LR1 D = 1, a diversity order of 5 is achieved. This confirms
of GS1 R1 /GR1 D , assuming two source nodes and a single
our analytical result that a diversity order of d = (LSk D + 1) +
relay. We consider four representative scenarios with the chan- M
m=1 (LRm D + 1) is expected when the relay is close to the
4 To confirm the slope of the simulated SERs, the performance curves for
source. Similarly for GS1 R1 /GR1 D = −30 dB (see Fig. 5),
point-to-point transmission with six, nine, and 12 colocated receive antennas we observe a diversity order of 6 for (LS1 R1 , LR1 D ) = (2, 2)
assuming MRC are provided as benchmarks. and (LS1 R1 , LR1 D ) = (2, 1), whereas a diversity order 5 is
2222 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 63, NO. 5, JUNE 2014

TABLE I Fig. 7 shows the analytical and simulated curves for dif-
D IVERSITY O RDER FOR D IFFERENT R ELAY L OCATIONS
ferent numbers of source nodes (i.e., K = 2, 4, 5, 6), modula-
tion schemes (i.e., 4/16/64-QAM), and channel lengths (i.e.,
2/3/4/6) to further validate the results.

VI. C ONCLUSION
In this paper, we have derived a closed-form approximate
SER expression for the uplink of a cooperative OFDMA sys-
tem with K sources and M relays. We have demonstrated
that achievable diversity order for each Sk → D communica-
tion link can take different values depending on the location
of relays. For example, a diversity order of (LSk D + 1) +
M
m=1 min(LSk Rm + 1, LRm D + 1) is available when the re-
lay nodes are located in the  middle. On the other hand, diver-
sity orders of (LSk D + 1) + M m=1 (LRm D + 1) and (LSk D +

1) + M m=1 (L S R
k m
+ 1) are, respectively, achieved for the
cases when the relay nodes are close to the source nodes and
close to the destination, respectively.

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FAREED et al.: ERROR-RATE PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF COOPERATIVE OFDMA SYSTEM WITH DaF RELAYING 2223

Muhammad Mehboob Fareed (S’06–M’13) re- Theodoros A. Tsiftsis (S’02–M’04–SM’10) was


ceived the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering born in Lamia, Greece, on November 1970. He
from the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, received the degree in physics from the Aristotle
Canada, in 2009. University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece,
From 2000 to 2001, he was a Software Engi- in 1993; the M.Sc. degree in digital systems engi-
neer with Elixir Technologies, Islamabad, Pakistan. neering from the Heriot–Watt University, Edinburgh,
From 2001 to 2003, he was a Design Engineer with U.K., in 1995; the M.Sc. degree in decision sci-
Advanced Engineering and Research Organization, ences from the Athens University of Economics and
Pakistan, while working as a visiting faculty mem- Business in 2000; and the Ph.D. degree in electrical
ber with Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad. From engineering from the University of Patras, Patra,
2009 to 2012, he was with Mircom Technologies Greece, in 2006.
Limited, Canada. He is currently with King Abdullah University of Science He is currently an Assistant Professor with the Department of Electrical
and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia. His general research interests include Engineering, Technological Educational Institute of Central Greece, Lamia. He
wireless communications, particularly distributed space–time coding and opti- is the author of more than 70 technical papers in scientific journals and inter-
mization of communication networks. national conferences. His major research interests include relay-assisted and
cooperative communications, wireless communications over fading channels,
wireless communications theory, and optical wireless communications.
Murat Uysal (SM’07) was born in Istanbul, Turkey, Dr. Tsiftsis serves as a Reviewer for several international journals and is a
in 1973. He received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees member of the Editorial Boards of the IEEE T RANSACTIONS ON C OMMUNI -
in electronics and communication engineering from CATIONS and the IEEE C OMMUNICATIONS L ETTERS .
Istanbul Technical University in 1995 and 1998,
respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical en-
gineering from Texas A&M University, College
Station, TX, USA, in 2001.
He is currently a Full Professor and Chair of the
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineer-
ing with Özyeğin University, Istanbul, Turkey. Prior
to joining Özyeğin University, he was a tenured
Associate Professor with the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada,
where he still holds an adjunct faculty position. His research interests include
broad areas of communication theory and signal processing, with particular
emphasis on the physical layer aspects of wireless communication systems
in radio, acoustic, and optical frequency bands. He has authored more than
180 journal and conference papers on these topics.
Dr. Uysal currently leads the EU COST Action OPTICWISE, which is
a high-profile consolidated European scientific platform for interdisciplinary
research activities in the emerging area of optical wireless communications. He
has served on the technical program committees of more than 80 international
conferences and workshops in the communications area. He is currently serving
as the Technical Program Committee Cochair of the 2014 IEEE Wireless Com-
munications and Networking Conference that will be held in Istanbul in April
2014. He serves on the editorial boards of the IEEE T RANSACTIONS ON C OM -
MUNICATIONS , the IEEE T RANSACTIONS ON V EHICULAR T ECHNOLOGY ,
Wiley Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing (WCMC), and the
Wiley Transactions on Emerging Telecommunications Technologies. He served
as an Editor for the IEEE T RANSACTIONS ON W IRELESS C OMMUNICATIONS
(2003–2011) and the IEEE C OMMUNICATIONS L ETTERS (2004–2012), as
a Guest Coeditor for the WCMC Special Issue on MIMO Communications
(October 2004) and the IEEE J OURNAL ON S ELECTED A REAS IN C OM -
MUNICATIONS Special Issue on Optical Wireless Communications (December
2009). He has received several awards, including the Turkish Academy of
Sciences Distinguished Young Scientist Award, the University of Waterloo
Engineering Research Excellence Award, and the Discovery Accelerator Sup-
plement Award from the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of
Canada, among others.

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