Energy-efficient best-select relaying in wireless cooperative networks

Due to the exponentially-increasing energy consumption of wireless mobile networks, energy efficiency has become an important metric in designing these networks. In this paper, we present an analysis of the energy efficiency of best-select relaying, where a single best relay is chosen to relay the source message, and compare its performance with direct communication. To improve the energy efficiency further, the optimal constellation size and transmission bandwidth are studied; we show that significant performance gain is possible compared to a direct communication scheme.