Mitigating channel estimation error with timing synchronization tradeoff in cooperative communications

Channel estimation error and co-channel interference (CCI) problems are among the main causes of performance degradation in wireless networks. In this paper, we investigate the impact of cooperative communications on mitigating the effect of channel estimation error and CCI. Two main performance criteria, namely, the traditional outage probability and the proposed signal-tonoise ratio (SNR) gap ratio, are utilized to characterize such impact. The SNR gap ratio measures the reduction in the SNR due to channel estimation error or CCI. Taking into consideration the channel estimation error, we show that the outage probability is reduced by utilizing cooperative transmission protocols. We also show that cooperative transmission scenarios, in which each cooperating relay forwards its signal over an orthogonal channel, result in lower SNR gap ratio compared to that of the direct transmission. Thus, cooperative transmission schemes are less susceptible to the effect of channel estimation err...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: TSP
• Authors: Ahmed S. Ibrahim, K. J. Ray Liu
• Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Channel Estimation Error, Cooperative Transmission, Timing Synchronization Error, TSP 2010