RCPC coding for the dynamic decode-and-forward channel

Within the field of cooperative communication the dynamic decode-and-forward (DDF) protocol is of particular interest. In this paper it is shown that the DDF protocol can easily be integrated into the type-II automatic-repeat request / forward error correction (ARQ/FEC) hybrid protocol. A widely used coding technique for the ARQ/FEC protocol constitutes the class of rate-compatible punctured convolutional (RCPC) codes. Therefore, the performance of RCPC codes used in conjunction with the DDF protocol is investigated for low and high transmission rates. It is shown that the proposed RCPC coded DDF protocol offers high performance gains over the corresponding non-cooperative communication systems. In particular, the RCPC coded DDF protocol performs good at low transmission rates but is outperformed at high transmission rates by the lattice coded DDF protocol investigated by Murugan et al.