On the optimal relay location and power allocation in a virtual array system with minimum overall outage probability

Cooperative communication among terminals allows the achievement of the benefits of MIMO links, such as diversity and multiplexing gains, even with single antenna radio transceivers. In this work we focus on a virtual MIMO link created between a source, cooperating with several relays to form a virtual array, and a destination, equipped with multiple antennas, in a Rayleigh flat-fading scenario. We asses the performance limits of this system, under the non-ergodicity assumption, in terms of outage probability, with the aim to single out the role played by important factors such as the distances between the terminals, power allocation, and time sharing.