Effect of an MDS code on the outage probability in cooperative multi-hop relaying networks

We propose the use of an MDS (maximum distance separable) code in multi-route cooperative multi-hop relaying networks. The effect of the code on the outage probability at the destination is investigated. Assuming a simple topology, we construct an absorbing Markov chain and analyze the performance at the link level. Numerical results indicate that significant improvement can be achieved by incorporating an MDS code. MDS codes successfully facilitate recovery of the information block at a relaying node due to powerful error-correcting capability, so that it can reduce the outage probability. Furthermore, we evaluate the average number of hops where the information block can be delivered.