Energy-efficient relay selection and optimal power allocation for performance-constrained dual-hop variable-gain AF relaying

This paper investigates the energy-efficiency enhancement of a variable-gain dual-hop amplify-and-forward (AF) relay network utilizing selective relaying. The objective is to minimize the total consumed power while keeping the end-to-end signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) above a certain peak value and satisfying the peak power constraints at the source and relay nodes. To achieve this objective, an optimal relay selection and power allocation strategy is derived by solving the power minimization problem. Numerical results show that the derived optimal strategy enhances the energy-efficiency as compared to a benchmark scheme in which both the source and the selected relay transmit at peak power. © 2013 IEEE.