Buffer-State-and-Thresholding-Based Amplify-and-Forward Cooperative Networks

In this letter, we propose a novel buffer-state-based amplify-and-forward relaying protocol for dual-hop cooperative networks. The proposed protocol is designed to amalgamate the following three concepts: 1) the exploitation of multiple source-to-relay broadcast channels; 2) the introduction of thresholding at relay and destination nodes; and 3) buffer-state-based relay selection. Our numerical results demonstrate that the proposed protocol is capable of attaining a lower end-to-end delay and a lower outage probability than previous amplify-and-forward relay selection schemes while simultaneously imposing no additional costs.