Power Scheduling for MIMO Relay Channels Employing Rateless Codes

We propose a simple power scheduling algorithm for relay channels with multiple antennas. The algorithm combines seamlessly with a low complexity communication protocol that employs rateless coding for the relay channel. The goal of the algorithm is to achieve a target average total transmission power. It requires little signaling and can be used whenever the destination node can predict future channel states. The scheduling works by a power on/off control of the source and relay nodes. It has about 1 dB gain in low SNR. It has little gain in moderate to high SNR due to the very small amount of signaling, but can be used to achieve a range of target average total transmission power without adjusting the on-power.