Cooperative communication with power allocation in downlink CDMA networks

In this paper, we study the downlink of cooperative Direct-Sequence Code Division Multiple Access (DS-CDMA), where a set of Mobile Terminals (MT) are cooperating with the purpose of improving their downlink communications reliability with the Base Station (BS). In order to achieve the spatial diversity, a new cooperation scenario is proposed. Afterward, in addition to multiuser precoding, Maximum Ratio Combining (MRC) according to the Maximum Signal to Noise Ratio (MSNR) criterion at the destination is investigated. Then, the optimal transmission power control strategy under a fixed total power constraint is illustrated and analyzed. Compared with equal transmission power assignment where BS and cooperative terminals transmit with same power, the proposed power allocation strategy enables significant performance gain at the destination.