Outage Analysis and Optimal Power Allocation for

Cooperative Communication Systems

He Bo
1
Li Jun
2
Gao He
3
Xu Gongwen
3
1
School of Information Science and
Engineering
Shandong University, SDU
Jinan 250100, China
2
School of Electrical Engineering and
Automation
Shandong Polytechnic University, SPU
Jinan 250353, China
3
Shandong Jianzhu University, Jinan
250101, China

Abstract-The paper studied the outage performance for
MIMO Multi-Relay ISDF (MR-ISDF) (Incremental and Selective
Decode-and-Forward) cooperative communication systems.
Firstly, the end-to-end mutual information, outage and OPA
(optimal power allocation) for MR-ISDF was derived under the
technology of MRC and beam-forming. Then the optimal single
ISDF (OS-ISDF) which acted as routing protocol was introduced.
Thirdly, we analyzed the close form end-to-end mutual
information and outage for OS-ISDF systems and proved that
outage for OS-ISDF is the low bound for MR-ISDF. At the end,
simulation verified the theory analyses. In addition, outage for
OPA scheme outperforms that for EPA (equal power allocation).
At
6
10

, outage for OPA scheme has 2dB gain than that for EPA.
I. INTRODUCTION
In recent years, cooperation communication [1]-[4] has been
becoming an emergence technique which easily form and
effectively exploit virtual multiple transmit and multiple
receive (MIMO) antennas to improve the spectral efficiency
and diversity of wireless communication systems while
alleviate the limits of size, power, weight and so on[5]-[8].
The potentiality advantage of MIMO cooperation
technology in wireless networks has been discussed in
previous works [9]-[10]. The optimal design of amplify-and-
forward (AF) cooperation in multiple-input multiple-output
(MIMO) relays has been investigated in [11] and [12].
Selection decode-amplify-forward (SDF) relaying
cooperative diversity which without wasting the channel
resource and making inefficient use of the degrees of
freedom of the channels has been researched in [13] and [14]
in single-input single-output (SISO) terminal systems with
the performance analysis of outage probability, bit error
probability for Mary square quadrature amplitude modulation
(M-QAM) and average channel capacity.
In this paper, we combined decode-amplify-forward
protocol with MIMO technology and proposed new SDF-
MIMO cooperative communication systems.

II. MODEL FOR MR/OS-ISDF COOPERATIVE
COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS
As described in figure 1, general half-duplex, dual-hop
multi-relay ISDF (MR-ISDF) and optimal single relay ISDF
(OS-ISDF) paradigm cooperative communication system
models are given which include one source (S), M relays
( ) 1, ,
i
R i M = " and one destination (D) node.
Assuming { } 1, 2, ,
relay
S M = " denotes all of available
relays. In the first cooperative phase, the node S broadcast
2 N coded symbols to the relays through relay channels and
node D through direct channel. At the end of the phase,
relays decoded the information, let
l
D represents a
successful decoding subset with | | 0,1, 2, , l M = " relays
that can regenerate the information successfully for the
cooperative transmission in the second phase. In the second
cooperative phase, relays which belong to subset
l
D recode
and retransmit the information to the node D which
represents MR-ISDF protocol.
The above protocol may not the optimal scheme, than the
optimal relay selected form subset
l
D the only one who
recode and retransmit the information to the node D which
represents OS-ISDF protocol.
At the end of phase two, the node D combines the
information directed from the node S and information form
relays using MRC (Maximum Ratio Combine) technology.

The source node transmits N/2 symbols The optimal relay re-transmit N/2 symbols
S D
R R
R
R R
S D
R R
R
R R
Optimal
single relay
The source node transmits N/2 symbols All available relays re-transmit N/2 symbols
aMR SDF
bOS-ISDF
S D
R R
R
R R
Available
relays set
S D
R R
R
R R
Available
relays set
Available
relays set
Available
relays set


Figure 1. Half-duplex dual-hop MR/OS-ISDF
cooperative communication system model.
Assuming that the node S and D both equip one single
antenna, the relay equips N receiving antennas and N
transmitting antennas each.
The channel coefficients | | | |
,
, , , ,
i j
h i s r j r d e e with the
mean square value
, s d
O ,
, s r
O and
, r d
O which represent the
channel fading coefficients between source-destination,
source-relays and relays-destination respectively.
, i j
h is

___________________________________
978-1-61284-307-0/11/$26.00 2011 IEEE
modeled as statistically independent and identically distributed
(i.i.d.), circularly symmetric zero mean complex Gaussian
random variables. Then
2
, i j
h obeys exponential distribution
with the mean value
2
, , ,
1
i j i j i j
E h
(
= = O
(


The channel noises
, i j
n are modeled as additive white
Gaussian noise (AWGN) with variances
0
N .
T
, , ,1 , ,
, ,
s i s i s i N
H h h ( =

" and
T
, 1, , , ,
, ,
i d i d N i d
H h h ( =

" denote
the N dimension channel impulse response vectors for the
source S to the i relay and the i relay to destination D
respectively.
III. MUTUAL INFORMATION AND OUTAGE PROBABILITY
ANALYSIS FOR MR-ISDF SYSTEMS
Assuming that aggregate power constraint is P and defines
( | 0,1 q e as power distribution factor. Then the transmitting
power at source node S
S
P can be represents as

S
P P q = (1)
and
( | | |
1
(1- ) , 0,1 , 1,
M
R i
i
P P P i M q q
=
= = e e
_
(2)
i
P represents transmitting power for the i relay. Signal to
noise ratio is defined as
0
SNR P N = .
As defined above, { } 1, 2, ,
relay
S M = " denotes all of
available relays and
l
D represents a successful decoding
subset with | | 0,1, 2, ,
l
D l M = = " relays that can
regenerate the information successfully. The
l
D can be
defined as

2
2 ,
0
1
, log 1
2
S
l relay S i
P
D i S H R
N
| |

e + >
` |
\ . )
(3)
Assuming that
2 1
R
SNR
x

= ,
( )
2
2 1
1
2 1
R
R
SNR
x x

= + = and
( )
1 1
2 1
R
x x t q q = + = , then the probability for event
l
D
is
( )
( ) ( )
2 2
r r , 1 r , 1
P P P
l l
l s i s j
i D j D
D H H t t
e e
= H > H < (4)
So, the end-end mutual information for the ISDF
cooperation system with the ability of beamforming of relays
and MRC both at relays and destination nodes can be
formulated as

( )
0
2
,
0 0
2
1
2 , 2
2
1
2 , 2
log 1 2 , 0
log 1 , 0,
S
i i d
S
l
P
s d l N
DF
P H
P
s d l N N
i D
h D
I
h D
e

+ =

| |
+ + =
|
|

\ .
_
(5)
So the outage probability for the ISDF-MIMO cooperative
communication system can be expressed as
( )
| |
( )
r r
0 , 0,1,2, ,
P P Outage
l l
M
out
MR ISDF l l
l D D M
P D D

= e
=
_ _
"
(6)
Where ( )
r
P outage
l
D denotes conditional outage
probability under the event
l
D . The first summation term
represents number of the correct decoding relays in subset
l
D . The second summation term denotes the possible
combination C
l
M
which represents the event of l successfully
decoding relays out of all M relays.
Then,
( )
( )
0
2
1
r r 2 , 2
P outage P log 1 2 , 0
2
S
P
l s d l N
R
D h D

= + < =
`
)
(7)
and

( )
2
,
0 0
r
2
1
r 2 , 2
P outage
P log 1 2 , 0
i i d
S
l
l
P H
P
s d l N N
i D
D
h R D
e
| |

= + + < =
| `
|
\ . )
_
(8)
where R denotes the end-to-end spectral efficiency in bps/Hz.
Then,

( ) ( )
( )
( )
0
2
,
0 0
2
2 1
r r , 2
2
r r ,
the first term
the second term
, , P 0 P
+ P 0 P 2 1
R
S
i i d
S
l
out
MR ISDF l s d P N
P H
P R
l s d N N
i D
P R SNR D h
D h
q

e
= = <
| |
= + <
|
|
\ .
_

(9)
Where

( )
2
1 2 1
r , , , , 2
P 1 exp , 1
2
R
s d s d s d s d SNR
x
h
q

q

| |
< = = O
|
\ .
(10)
and

( )
( )
( )
( )
2
r r , 1
1
1
, 1
, 1 , ,
1
0
P 0 P
1 exp , 1
!
M
l s i
i
k
N
M
s i
s i s i s i
i
k
D H
k
t
t
t
=

=
=
= = H s
| |
|
= H = O
|
\ .
_
(11)
Assuming that equal power allocation among relays, then
i R
P P l = and

( )
2
,
0 0
2
,
0 0
2
r ,
2
r ,
2 2
1
2 1
r , ,
P 2 1
P 2 1
P
i i d
S
l
l d
S R
l
R
l
P H
P R
s d N N
i D
H
P P R
s d N l N
i D
s d l d l SNR
i D
h
h
h H
q
q
e
e

e
| |
+ <
|
|
\ .
| |
= + <
|
|
\ .
| |
= + <
|
|
\ .
_
_
_
(12)
Where
2
sd
h q and ( )
2
, ,
1
i j d
h l q are exponential
distribution random value with the mean value
( )
0 ,
1/
s d
q = O and ( )
,
/ 1
r d
l q ( = O

. Assuming that
random value

( )
2 2
1
, ,
l
s d l d l
i D
Z h H
q
q

e
= +
_
(13)
Then the PDF (Probability Density Function) of random
value Z is formulated as
( )
( )
( )
( )
0
0
0
0
0
1
!
z
l N
l N m
l N
Z l N
z
m
e
f z
z
e
l N m

=
(
(
=
( (


(

(

_
(14)
and the CDF (Cumulative Distribution Function) of Z can be
written as

( )
( )
( )
( )
( )
( )
( )
( )
0
0
0
2 2
1
2 1
r , ,
0
0
0
0
1
0
1
0
P
1
1
1
!
R
l
x
s d i d Z l SNR
i D
x
l N m
l N
l N m
l N
l N
k
l N m
m
x
k
h H f z dz
e
x
e
k

q

=
+

=
| |
+ < =
|
|
\ .

=
`



`
( (

( (

( (
) )
_
)
_
_
(15)
Then, the close-form ( ) , ,
out
MR ISDF
P R SNR q

in equation (9) is
derived.
IV. MUTUAL INFORMATION AND OUTAGE PROBABILITY
ANALYSIS FOR OS-ISDF SYSTEMS
In the previous section, mutual information and outage
probability for ordinary MIMO relay, cooperation SDF / ISDF
(MR-ISDF) were analyzed. MR-ISDF scheme uses all the
correct set of relay for cooperative communication. However,
this collaborative program is not optimal. In this section, we
introduce optimal single relay selection scheme and the
accordingly outage probability for ISDF systems
A. Optimal Single Relay Selection Scheme for ISDF Systems
From equation (5), we can derive that

2 2 2
, , ,
0 0 0 l l
i i d i r d R r d
i D i D
P H P H P H
N N N
e e
s =
_ _
(16)
where
2 2
, ,
argmax
l
r d i d
i D
H H
e
= . Then equation (8) can
formulated further
( )
( ) { }
( )
{ }
0 0
2
2 2
1
r r 2 , , 2
2 2
2 1
r , ,
P outage P log 1
P 1 , 0
S R
R
l
P P
l s d r d N N
s d i d l SNR
i D
D h H R
h H D q q

e
> + + <
= [ + < =
(17)
Equation (17) means that the outage probability for OS-
ISDF systems is the low bound of MR-ISDF
B. Mutual Information and Outage Probability Analysis for OS-
ISDF Systems
Assuming that
2 1
R
SNR
x

= ,
( )
2
2 1
1
2 1
R
R
SNR
x x

= + = and
( )
1 1
2 1
R
x x t q q = + = and according to equation (5) and
(17), the outage probability for OS-ISDF system is
( ) ( )
( )
( )
( )
( )
( )
( )
( )
( ) ( ) ( )
( )
0
0 0
r 2
2
2 1
r r , 2
2 2
r r , ,
2
1 2 1
r r , r 2
2 2
r r r , ,
, , P
P 0 P
P 0 P 2 1
P 0 P P 0
P 0 P 0 P 1
R
S
S r
R
out R
OS ISDF DF
l s d P N
P P R
l s d r d N N
l s d l SNR
l l s d r d
P R SNR I
D h
D h H
D h D
D D h H x
q
q
q q

= <
= = <
+ = + <
= = < =
+ = + = + <

UIFGJSTUUFSN
UIFTFDPOEUFSN

(18)
According to equation (4) and (17), the second term in (18)
can be formulate as follow
( )
( )
( )
( )
( )
( )
( ) { }
2 2 2
r , 1 r , ,
2
0
r , 1
2 2 2
r , 1 r , ,
1
P P 1
P
1 P 1- P 1
l
l
l
M s i s d i d
i D
l D
s j
j D
M
s l s d l d
l
H h H x
H
H h H x
t q q
t
t q q
e
=
e
=

H > + <

`

H <
)
(
= H > + <
(

__
(19)
where the last equality follows from the multinomial equality
( )
| |
( )
( ) ( ) ( )
0 , 0,1,2, ,
1 1
1 1
1 1 1
l l
l l
M
i i j
i D j D
l D D M
M M
l l l l l
l l
a b a
a b a a b
e e
= e
= =
H H
( = H + = H

_ _
"
(20)
Similar with equation (12), (13) and (14)
( )
( )
( )
( )
( )
( )
( )
( )
0
0
2 2
r , ,
0
0
0
0
1
1 0
P 1
1
1
1
!
s d l d
x
N
N m k
N
N N m
x
N m
m k
h H x
e
x
e
k

q q

+
= =
+ <




=
`
( (

( (

( (
)
_ _
(21)
where
( )
0 ,
1/
s d
q = O and ( )
,
/ 1
l d
l q ( = O

0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1

10
-1
10
0
R=1bit/s/Hz and N=4, SNR=0dB,
sd
=1,
sr
=1,
rd
= 1
q
a
v
e
r
a
g
e

o
u
t
g
a
e

p
r
o
b
a
b
i
l
i
t
y


DF M==1
OS-ISDF, M=1
MR-ISDF, M=1
MR-ISDF, M=2
OS-ISDF, M=2
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
10
-4
10
-3
10
-2
10
-1
10
0
R=1bit/s/Hz and N=4, SNR=5dB,
sd
=1,
sr
=1,
rd
= 1
q
a
v
e
r
a
g
e

o
u
t
g
a
e

p
r
o
b
a
b
i
l
i
t
y


DF M==1
MR-ISDF, M=1
OS-ISDF, M=1
MR-ISDF, M=2
OS-ISDF, M=2
( ) ( )
( )
( )
( )
( )
( )
( )
( )
( )
0
0 0
2 1
r 2
2
2 1
r r , 2
2 2
r r , ,
, 1
, 1 ,
1
0
2 2
r , 1 r ,
1
, , P
P 0 P
P 0 P 2 1
1 exp exp
! 2
1 P 1- P 1
R
S
S r
R
SNR
out R
OS ISDF DF
l s d P N
P P R
l s d r d N N
k
x N
M
s i
s i s d
i
k
M
s i s d
i
P R SNR I
D h
D h H
x
k
H h
q
t
t
q
t q q

=
=
=
=
= <
= = <
+ = + <
| |
| | | |
|
= H
` | |
|
\ . \ .
\ . )
+H > +
_
( ) ( ) { }
2
, i d
H x <
(22)
The problem of OPA and optimal outage performance for
MR-ISDF and OS-ISDF systems can be described as
minimum problem under the total power constrained
conditions which can be formulated as (23)

( )
( )
( )
( )
0,1
0,1
1
argmin , ,
argmin , ,
. .
i
out
opt OS ISDF
out
opt MR ISDF
n
S R
i
P R SNR
P R SNR
s t P P P
q
q
q q
q q

e
=
( =

( =

> +
_
(23)
V. NUMERICAL AND SIMULATION RESULTS
In this section, we resorted to computer simulation to verify
the OPA algorithm and the outage probability for both MR-
ISDF and OS-ISDF systems when =1 bit/s/Hz R .















Figure 2. Outage versus power allocation factor q when 0 SNR = G% .




















Figure 3. Outage versus power allocation factor q when 5 SNR = G%



Figure 4. Optimal power allocation factor
opt
q versus SNR .

Figure 2 and figure 3 give the relationship between outage
and power allocation factor q . Figure 4 simulate the optimal
power allocation factor
opt
q versus SNR . From the figures,
we can see that: (1)
out
OS ISDF
P

and
out
MR ISDF
P

achieve optimal
when
opt
q q = and 0.5
opt
q = . This means that the outage
performance for OPA scheme is better than that for EPA
scheme. (2)
out
OS ISDF
P

scheme is better than

out
MR ISDF
P

scheme
and
out
OS ISDF
P

is the low bound of

out
MR ISDF
P

. (3)
out
OS ISDF
P

and
out
MR ISDF
P

are better than outage probability of DF system.

(4) Because of existing of the direct channel
, s d
h , 0.5
opt
q .
The source node is allocated more power reliable receiving of
relay and destination nodes.

0 2 4 6 8 10
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
R=1bit/s/Hz and N=4,
sd
=1,
sr
=1,
rd
= 1
SNR(dB)
o
p
t
i
m
a
l

p
o
w
e
r

a
l
l
o
c
a
t
i
o
n

f
a
c
t
o
r


q



OS-ISDF, M=1
OS-ISDF, M=2

Figure 5. Outage performance versus SNR for OPA and EPA conditions.

Figure 5 gives
out
OS ISDF
P

and
out
MR ISDF
P

under OPA and EPA

(equal power allocation) scheme. At
6
10

, outage for OPA

scheme has 2dB gain than that for EPA.
out
OS ISDF
P

is better
than
out
MR ISDF
P

.
Form figure 1, OS-ISDF is also an optimal routing scheme.
It can saves more power than MR-ISDF especial in coded
communication systems where more power is needed for
overhead and decoding.
VI. CONCLUSION
This paper presented optimal single ISDF and analyzed
outage performance both for MIMO Multi-Relay ISDF (MR-
ISDF) and Optimal Single ISDF (OS-ISDF) cooperative
communication systems under an aggregate power constraint.
At the first place, the end-to-end mutual information, outage
and OPA (optimal power allocation) for MR-ISDF was
derived under the technology of MRC and beam-forming.
Then the optimal single ISDF (OS-ISDF) which acted as
routing protocol was introduced. Thirdly, we analyzed the
close form end-to-end mutual information and outage for OS-
ISDF systems and proved that outage for OS-ISDF is the low
bound for MR-ISDF. In section V, we resorted to computer
simulation to verify the OPA algorithm and the outage
probability for both MR-ISDF and OS-ISDF systems
when =1 bit/s/Hz R . Simulation results verified the theory
analyses.

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0 2 4 6 8 10
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R=1bit/s/Hz and N=4,
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OS-ISDF, OPA, M=1
OS-ISDF, EPA, M=1
MR-ISDF, EPA, M=2
OS-ISDF, EPA, M=2
MR-ISDF, OPA, M=2
OS-ISDF, OPA, M=2