Achievable rate region for multiple-access-relay-networks

The authors introduce a generalisation of the multiple-access-relay-channel (MARC) called multiple-access-relay-network (MARN). The MARC model was first introduced by Kramer et al. and consists of many transmitters, one receiver and only one relay. In the MARN, there are many transmitters, many relays and one receiver. The authors obtained an achievable rate region for MARN by considering partial decode-and-forward (PDF) strategy at the relays. They showed that the region obtained using PDF strategy subsumes the region obtained by Kramer et al. for MARC. In the proposed coding scheme, the authors take advantage of PDF strategy based on regular encoding/backward decoding strategy. They also define semi-deterministic MARN, in which the output of the link between each transmitter and each relay is a deterministic function of the transmitter´s input. The authors obtained an inner bound (using our achievable rate region) and also an outer bound on the capacity region of the semi-deterministic MARN and compared them.