Joint Relay Selection and Relay Ordering in Cooperative Communication System Using Generalized Selection Combining (GSC) Technique

Relay-based cooperative communication is a technique in wireless communication systems where intermediate relay nodes assist in forwarding data from a source to a destination. This approach helps to enhance communication reliability particularly in environments with obstacles or interference. To achieve the benefits of cooperative communication system, relay selection (RS) and relay ordering (RO) strategies play a significant role. In attempting to compromise between spectral and energy efficiency, joint relay selection (RS) and relay ordering (RO) scheme has been designed for cooperative network in this article. Generalized selection combining (GSC) is the diversity combining technique which selects and optimally combines the signals with the highest signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) from the available diversity branches. In this article, we analyze the performance of joint RS and RO strategy using GSC. Sub optimum relay ordering algorithm has also been designed finally to reduce complexity. It is inferred from results that the proposed joint RS-RO strategy using GSC outperforms traditional maximal ratio combining (MRC) technique.