Multi-relay network design using power-normalized SNR

In this paper, we adopt a novel efficiency measure, the power-normalized SNR (PN-SNR), in the design of multi-relay networks with an individual power constraint for each relay. We formulate the PN-SNR maximization problem with a received SNR constraint to maintain the quality of service (QoS) and propose a low complexity algorithm for a suboptimal solution. The average PN-SNR and average throughput of the proposed design are simulated and compared with existing designs. We also simulate the probability of no transmission with the proposed design for an arbitrary SNR level. We observe that the proposed design is more power efficient than existing ones with comparable performance in average throughput. When the transmitter power is moderate, with higher QoS constraint, the probability of no transmission gets higher; the average throughput decreases, but the PN-SNR of the network increases.