Estimating ergodic capacity of cooperative analog relaying under different adaptive source transmission techniques

Upper bounds on link spectral efficiency of amplify-and-forward cooperative diversity networks with independent but non-identically distributed wireless fading statistics are studied by deriving the Shannon capacity of three distinct adaptive source transmission techniques: (i) constant power with optimal rate adaptation (ORA); (ii) optimal joint power and rate adaptation (OPRA); and (iii) fixed rate with truncated channel inversion (TCIFR). Asymptotic capacity bound is also derived which show that optimal rate adaptation with constant power policy provides roughly the same ergodic capacity as the optimal joint power and rate adaptation policy at high mean signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). Different previous related studies, we advocate a simple numerical procedure for unified analysis of ergodic channel capacity in a myriad of fading environments. This framework allows us to gain insights as to how fade distributions and dissimilar fading statistics across the diversity paths affect the Shannon capacity, without imposing any restrictions on the fading parameters.