Randomized decode-and-forward strategies for two-way relay networks

Randomized space-time block coding (RSTBC) is a decentralized cooperative technique that ensures diversity gains through the recruitment of multiple uncoordinated relays, with virtually no signaling overhead. In this paper, RSTBC is applied to two-way relaying wireless networks which, when two terminals want to send a message to each other, can potentially improve the network throughput by allowing them to exchange data over two or three time slots via bidirectional relay communications. Specifically, two decode-and-forward relaying strategies are considered which take up only two time slots. In the first slot the two sources transmit simultaneously. In the former scheme which we refer to as decode and forward both (DFB) RSTBC, only relays which can reliably decode both source blocks via joint maximum likelihood decoding cooperate, and do so by modulating the bit-level XOR of the decoded data through a single RSTBC. In the latter scheme called decode and forward any (DFA) RSTBC, the relays cooperate in the second slot also when they can decode only one of the two source data. In this case each source data that is decoded is mapped into an independent RSTBC. If the relay decoded reliably both sources, after cancellation of the strong interference, then it sends the two RSTBCs encoding the symbol vectors from each of the sources. A randomized forwarding scheme is also proposed for three-time-slot relaying, which is also a DFA strategy, although without joint decoding or interference cancellation after the first slot. The diversity orders achievable through the three proposed schemes are calculated and the obtained theoretical results are validated by means of Monte Carlo numerical simulations.