Analysis of Packet Diversity in Buffer-Aided Relaying over Symmetric and Asymmetric Rayleigh Fading Channels

In this paper, we propose innovative schemes for relay selection that jointly explore packet selection and relay selection for buffer-aided amplify and forward (AF) cooperative relaying networks. The first proposed scheme chooses the most suitable channel based on link quality from all active channels, i.e., channels with neither empty nor full corresponding buffers. In the second proposed scheme, the most suitable channel is chosen based on buffer status. When the source-relay channel is determined, the corresponding relay collects data in the buffer. Likewise, when the relay-destination channel is picked, the most suitable packet is dispatched from the buffer. The most suitable packet is one that provides the highest end-to-end equivalent signal-to-noise ratio. We simulated the outage probability, average throughput and packet delay and analyzed the proposed protocol for both symmetric and asymmetric channel conditions. Comparison is made against the existing buffer-aided schemes. The results show that the proposed relay and packet selection systems help to reduce the outage probability, diversity gain and delay.