An MDP-based model for optimal relay selection in OFDMA cooperative networks

In this paper we present a joint resource allocation and optimal relay selection scheme that meets the data rate QoS requirement of traffic in OFDMA networks. The proposed scheme selects the relay that best utilizes the attainable data rate for all subcarriers, as opposed to existing works which are based on selecting the optimal relay independently per single subcarrier. The scheme is further designed as a finite horizon Markov Decision Process (MDP). Simulation results show that the proposed scheme outperforms representative existing schemes in terms of the network total throughput and end-to-end outage probability.