Achievable rate for amplify and forward relay system at low SNR

Abstract

The following faculty members have examined the final copy of this thesis for form and content, and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Science with a major in Electrical Engineering. Thanks are also due to my fellow lab workers who helped guide me in good and bad times. _________________________________vi ABSTRACT In this thesis, the achievable rate at low SNR is established for Amplify-and-Forward (AF) cooperative system with a source node, a destination node and a relay node. To characterize the effect of relay locations, an aggregate channel model which consists of both long-term path loss and short-term path loss fading is used. To consider the effect of channel information at the relay, average and instantaneous power constraints are applied respectively when evaluating the achievable rate. As analytic solutions to the achievable rate seem difficult to obtain, approximations for the achievable rate, the optimal power loadings, the optimal amplification coefficients for both types of power constraints are derived in this thesis.vii