Dynamic Resource Allocation in OFDMA-Based DF Cooperative Relay Networks

This paper investigates the Resource allocation problem in OFDMA-based decode-and-forward cooperative communication systems. The objective is to maximize the sum throughput under the constraints of joint total transmission power and subchannels occupation, while maintaining the maximum fairness among multiple relay nodes. Since the optimal solution to this combinatorial problem is extremely computationally complex to obtain, we propose a low-complexity suboptimal algorithm that allocates subchannel and power separately. In the proposed algorithm, subchannel allocation over the relay nodes is first performed under the assumption of equal power distribution. Then, an optimal power allocation algorithm named multi-level water-filling is used to maximize the sum rate. The simulation results show that the performance of the proposed algorithm can approach asymptotically to that of the optimal algorithm while enhancing the fairness among all relay nodes and reducing computational complexity from exponential to linear with the number of subchannels. It is also shown that the proposed equal power distribution algorithm with subchannel permutation (SP) outperforms the one without SP.