Increasing uplink capacity via user cooperation diversity

Mobile users' capacity is limited by the fact that within the duration of any given call, they experience severe variations in signal attenuation, thereby necessitating the use of some type of diversity. We are proposing a new form of diversity, whereby diversity gains are achieved via the cooperation of in-cell users. Results show that, even though the inter-user channel is noisy, cooperation leads not only to an increase in capacity but also to a more robust system, where users' achievable rates are less susceptible to channel variations.