Minimax robust relay selection based on uncertain long-term CSI

Cooperative communications via multiple relay nodes is known to provide the benefits of increase diversity and coverage. Simultaneous transmission via multiple relays, however, requires strong coordination between nodes either in terms of slot-based transmission or distributed space-time (ST) code implementation. Dynamically selecting a single best relay out of multiple relays and then using it alone for cooperative transmission alleviates the need for this strong coordination while still reaping the benefits of increased diversity and coverage. In this paper, we consider the design of relay selection (RS) under an imperfect knowledge of long-term channel state information (CSI) at the relay nodes, and we pursue minimax optimization to arrive at a robust RS approach that promises the best guarantee on the worst-case end-to-end signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). We provide some intuitive examples and extensive simulation results, not only in terms of worst-case SNR performance but also in terms of average bit-error-rate (BER) performance, to demonstrate the benefits of the proposed minimax robust RS scheme. © 2013 IEEE.