Buffer-Aided Max-Link Relay Selection for Multi-Way Cooperative Multi-Antenna Systems

In this letter, we present a relay-selection strategy for multi-way cooperative multi-antenna systems that are aided by a central processor node, where a cluster formed by two users is selected to simultaneously transmit to each other with the help of relays. In particular, we present a novel multi-way relay selection strategy based on the selection of the best link, exploiting the use of buffers and physical-layer network coding, that is called multi-way buffer-aided max-link (MW-Max-Link). We compare the proposed MW-Max-Link to existing techniques in terms of bit error rate, pairwise error probability, sum rate, and computational complexity. Simulations are then employed to evaluate the performance of the proposed and existing techniques.