Discrete Power Allocation for Lifetime Maximization in Cooperative Networks

Discrete power allocation strategies for amplify- and-forward cooperative networks are proposed based on selective relaying methods. The goal of power allocation is to maximize the network lifetime, which is defined as the duration of time for which the outage probability at the destination can be maintained above a certain level. The discrete power levels enable a low cost implementation and a close integration with high speed digital circuits. We propose three power allocation strategies that take into consideration both the channel state information (CSI) and the residual energy information (REI) at each node. By modeling the residual energy of each node as the states of a Markov Chain, we are able to derive the network lifetime analytically by computing the expected number of transitions to the absorbing states, i.e., the energy states for which the outage probability is no longer achievable. The performance of the three strategies are compared through numerical simulations and a significant improvement in network lifetime is shown, when compared with the case considering only the local CSI.