A Low Complexity Subcarrier Pairing Scheme for OFDM Based Multiple AF Relay Systems

We consider an OFDM based multiple AF relaying systems. Since the channel between first hop (source station-relay station) and second hop (relay station -destination station) varies independently, the subcarrier in the first hop can be paired to another subcarrier in the second hop for the increase of the system capacity. The conventional pairing which uses the brute force searching requires large complexity while giving optimal pairing for maximum system capacity. In this paper, we present sub-optimal subcarrier pairing scheme with low complexity. Every RS firstly pairs the subcarrier with the highest channel gain in the first hop to the subcarrier with highest channel gain in the second hop. The pair with the highest SNR among all the pairs is determined as final selected pair and the corresponding subcarriers are not selected at other RSs in the next paring iteration. This process is repeated until all the subcarriers are paired. Simulation results show the proposed pairing scheme achieves near optimal performance with low complexity.