Novel deep reinforcement learning‐based delay‐constrained buffer‐aided relay selection in cognitive cooperative networks

Abstract

In this Letter, a deep reinforcement learning‐based approach is proposed for the delay‐constrained buffer‐aided relay selection in a cooperative cognitive network. The proposed learning algorithm can efficiently solve the complicated relay selection problem, and achieves the optimal throughput when the buffer size and number of relays are large. In particular, the authors use the deep‐Q‐learning to design an agent to estimate a specific action for each state of the system, which is then utilised to provide an optimum trade‐off between throughput and a given delay constraint. Simulation results are provided to demonstrate the advantages of the proposed scheme over conventional selection methods. More specifically, compared to the max‐ratio selection criteria, where the relay with the highest signal‐to‐interference ratio is selected, the proposed scheme achieves a significant throughput gain with higher throughput‐delay balance.

Deep Q-Learning-Based Buffer-Aided Relay Selection for Reliable and Secure Communications in Two-Hop Wireless Relay Networks

“…With the development of deep learning (DL), DL has been applied to wireless relay networks [ 33 , 34 , 35 ]. A large number of researchers have started to use deep learning to study buffer-aided relay selection [ 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 ]. The authors in [ 36 ] model the buffer-aided relay selection as a multi-classification problem and uses a deep neural network (DNN) to predict the suitable link to transmit the signals.…”

“…The comparison experiments in [ 39 ] demonstrated that DQL has better learning results and lower complexity than those of TQL, and the implemented scheme via DQL is more suitable for practical scenarios, as the implemented scheme via DQL could work without prior information. On this basis, the authors in [ 40 , 41 ] realized reliable communications for IoTs [ 40 ] and CRNs [ 41 ] by using the DQL-based buffer-aided relay selection schemes. The authors in [ 40 , 41 ] extend their work further and use the proposed DQL-based buffer-aided relay selection scheme to realize reliable and secure communications in CRNs [ 42 , 43 ].…”

“…On this basis, the authors in [ 40 , 41 ] realized reliable communications for IoTs [ 40 ] and CRNs [ 41 ] by using the DQL-based buffer-aided relay selection schemes. The authors in [ 40 , 41 ] extend their work further and use the proposed DQL-based buffer-aided relay selection scheme to realize reliable and secure communications in CRNs [ 42 , 43 ].…”