Performance analysis of cooperative communication for wireless networks

The demand for access to information when and where you need has motivated the transition of wireless communications from a fixed infrastructure based cellular communications technology to a more pervasive adhoc wireless networking technology. Challenges still remain in wireless adhoc networks in terms of meeting higher capacity demands, improved reliability and longer connectivity before it becomes a viable widespread commercial technology. Present day wireless mesh networking uses node-to-node serial multi-hop communication to convey information from source to destination in the network. The performance of such a network depends on finding the best possible route between the source and destination nodes. However the end-to-end performance can only be as good as the weakest link within a chosen route. Unlike wired networks, the quality of point-to-point links in a wireless mesh network is subject to random fluctuations. This adversely affects the performance resulting in poor throughput and poor energy efficiency. In recent years, a new paradigm for communication called cooperative communications has been proposed for which initial information theoretic studies have shown the potential for improvements in capacity over traditional multi-hop wireless networks. Cooperative communication involves exploiting the broadcast nature of the wireless medium to form virtual antenna arrays out of independent single-antenna network nodes for transmission. In this research we explore the fundamental performance limits of cooperative communication under more practical operating scenarios. Specifically we provide a framework for computing the outage and ergodic capacities of non identical distributed MIMO links, study the effect of time synchronization error on system performance, analyze the end-to-end average bit error rate (ABER) performance under imperfect relaying, and study range extension and energy efficiency offered by the system when compared to a traditional system.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph. D.

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Department dc:contributor.department

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Chembil Palat, Ramesh

Chairs dc:contributor.committeechair

• Annamalai, Annamalai Jr.
• Reed, Jeffrey H.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Ellingson, Steven W.
• Ribbens, Calvin J.
• Tranter, William H.

• diversity
• MIMO
• wireless
• relaying
• time synchronization error
• cooperative communication

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

etd-12132006-142934

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/30080