Cooperative Communication: A Review

AbstractThe next generation wireless systems are supposed to handle high data rate as well as large coverage area. It should consume less power and utilize bandwidth efficiently. At the same time, the mobile terminals must be simple, cheap, and smaller in size. In wireless environment, the quality of received signal level degraded due to path-loss and shadowing from various obstacles in propagation path. In addition to this, signal quality suffers from fading due to constructive and destructive interference of multi-path components which makes it difficult for the receiver to extract the message correctly. Effect of fading can be suppressed by diversity technique in which replicas of signal is provided to the receiver. Receiver can make a decision on behalf of these replicas; hence, reliability of reception can be improved. Diversity can be achieved with the help of multi-antenna system where multiple antennas are installed at transmitter/receiver. However, implementing multiple antennas at wireless termi...