Abstract-In this contribution we investigate the spectral-efficiency of a two-hop cooperative network using multicarrier code-division multipleaccess (MC-CDMA) transmission scheme. The two-hop network constitutes K source users transmitting signals to K destinations with the aid of N relays. Our focus is on the relay optimization, when assuming that the N relays cooperate or do not cooperate with each other. Specifically, in this contribution the egocentric-altruistic (E-A) optimization is introduced, which constitutes an E-optimization motivating to suppress the multiuser interference (MUI) of the source-relay channels and an A-optimization aiming to pre-mitigate the potential MUI of the relay-destination channels. Both the minimum mean-square error (MMSE) and zero-forcing (ZF) optimization criteria are considered. Furthermore, the spectral-efficiency performance of the two-hop MC-CDMA systems using the proposed E-A relay optimization is investigated by simulations, when assuming communications over frequency-selective fading channels.
I. INTRODUCTIONIn order to increase the link quality, reliability, and data rate of wireless networks, future wireless communication systems are required to be developed for cooperation rather than merely for coexistence [1]. In order to accomplish such cooperation, relay nodes may be deployed to assist the communications between sources and destinations, making the signal processing at sources and destinations simple in addition to the other advantages. Specifically, in a two-hop network operated in time-division duplex (TDD) principles, the main signal processing may be implemented at the relays so that the complexity of source and destination devices is as low as possible.In TDD-based networks, owing to the reciprocal characteristics of the bidirectional communication channels, it is usually convenient for relays to attain the channel state information (CSI) required for carrying out some signal processing. Assuming that the CSI of both the source-relay and relay-destination channels is known to the relays, then, signal detection and transmission at the relays can be represented by one joint optimization problem, which is referred to as the joint detection/transmission relay optimization. This joint relay optimization problem may be solved in the principles of, such as, MMSE [2][3][4] or ZF [5]. However, this joint detection/transmission relay optimization problem is usually hard to solve. Therefore, in this contribution we propose and investigate a relatively simple relay optimization scheme, which is developed based on the concepts of egocentric (E)-optimization and altruistic (A)-optimization [8,9], referred to as the E-A optimization or E-A relay optimization for convenience. As our forthcoming discourse shown, the E-A relay optimization is constituted by an E-optimization resulting in a multiuser detector (MUD) and an A-optimization leading to a multiuser transmitter (MUT). The MUD motivates to suppress the MUI from the source-relay channels and the MUT aims to pre-mitiga...