Position optimisation for multiple mobile relays by utilising one‐bit feedback information

Abstract

This paper investigates the problem of position optimization for multiple mobile relays. The authors propose a new scheme involving multiple mobile relays with fixed orbits to avoid collision risk among the multiple mobile relays and to relax the requirements of the existing approaches, e.g., multiple on-board antennas and complex feedback signals. The proposed scheme exhibits satisfactory performance with low cost and low complexity, as it requires only a single on-board antenna and merely a one-bit feedback signal, which is highly suitable for a scenario in which the source node has limited energy at its disposal, such as in a disaster area. The authors further design three implementation algorithms based on the easy implementation of the proposed scheme. The first algorithm is the simplest one in so far as it utilizes only single positive feedback information, but it exhibits poor performance. The second algorithm achieves better performance by exploiting successive points of negative feedback information. Based on the second algorithm, the third algorithm exhibits the best performance by further exploiting cumulative points of positive feedback information.