Energy-Efficient Double Relay Communication Protocol in Cellular Networks

Abstract

Network densification is a promising solution to increase the spectral efficiency of cellular networks that comes at the cost of a larger energy expenditure. Relays have been proposed as an energy-efficient alternative to network densification. However, deploying relays requires additional planning and infrastructure, which can be costly or even prohibitive for very dense networks. The Double Relay Communication Protocol (DRCP) increases the spectral efficiency by combining spatial diversity and network coding principles. In contrast to other schemes based on relays, DRCP does not require deploying additional relays since it uses base stations as relays. However, its potential for providing an energy-efficient solution has not been explored yet. Therefore, in this paper we propose a power control mechanism that increases the energy efficiency of DRCP, while still achieving a larger spectral efficiency compared to other state-of-the-art approaches.