Throughput-optimal scheduling for cooperative relaying in wireless access networks

This article considers the cooperation between base station and relay stations to increase system throughput in time-slotted relaying wireless networks, such as dynamic time division multiple access systems. We focus on optimal throughput scheduling policies for the cooperative relaying at the network layer level. It is shown that the resulting policy for this cooperative protocol obtains the optimal throughput region. Random packet queueing at the relay stations may cause a packet-reordering effect, which may be an obstacle for real-time applications. We alter the design for throughput-optimal scheduling to remove this effect and guarantee a near optimal throughput region.