Detection and Resource Allocation Algorithms for Cooperative MIMO Relay Systems

Cooperative communications and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication systems are important topics in current research that will play key roles in the future of wireless networks and standards. These techniques can provide gains in data throughput, network capacity, coverage, outage, reduced error rates and power consumption, but can have an increased cost in computational complexity and present new problems in many areas. In this thesis, the various challenges in accurately detecting and estimating data signals and allocating resources in the cooperative systems are investigated. Firstly, we propose a cross-layer design strategy that consists of a cooperative maximum likelihood (ML) detector operating in conjunction with link selection for a cooperative MIMO network. The cooperative ML detector is derived, with considerations and approximations made for the knowledge of the system information that is available to the detector. Link selection in the cooperative network is considered, and two new link selection schemes are proposed, along with an iterative detection and decoding (IDD) scheme that utilises channel coding techniques. Simulation results show the performance and potential gains of the proposed schemes. Secondly, a successive interference cancellation (SIC) detector is proposed for a MIMO system that has dynamic ordering based on a reliability ordering (RO which is derived from the log-likelihood ratio of the estimated data, and an alternative candidate cancellation method, which uses multiple feedback (MF) of unreliable data estimates. The complexity of these schemes is analysed and a hard decision feedback IDD system is also proposed. Results show that the proposed detector can give gains over existing schemes for a minimal amount of extra complexity. Lastly, a detector is proposed that is based upon the method of widely linear (WL) filtering and a multiple branch (MB) SIC, for a multiple user, overloaded cooperative MIMO system. The use of WL methods is explained, and a new method of choosing cancellation branches for an MB detector is proposed with an analysis of the complexity required. A list-based IDD system is developed, which is designed such that a list can be generated for processing the information. Simulation results show that the proposed detector can operate successfully in an overloaded system and provide improved performance gains.