Buffer-aided Relay Selection Scheme Research Articles

Deep Q-Learning-Based Buffer-Aided Relay Selection for Reliable and Secure Communications in Two-Hop Wireless Relay Networks

This paper investigates the problem of buffer-aided relay selection to achieve reliable and secure communications in a two-hop amplify-and-forward (AF) network with an eavesdropper. Due to the fading of wireless signals and the broadcast nature of wireless channels, transmitted signals over the network may be undecodable at the receiver end or have been eavesdropped by eavesdroppers. Most available buffer-aided relay selection schemes consider either reliability or security issues in wireless communications; rarely is work conducted on both reliability and security issues. This paper proposes a buffer-aided relay selection scheme based on deep Q-learning (DQL) that considers both reliability and security. By conducting Monte Carlo simulations, we then verify the reliability and security performances of the proposed scheme in terms of the connection outage probability (COP) and secrecy outage probability (SOP), respectively. The simulation results show that two-hop wireless relay network can achieve reliable and secure communications by using our proposed scheme. We also performed comparison experiments between our proposed scheme and two benchmark schemes. The comparison results indicate that our proposed scheme outperforms the max-ratio scheme in terms of the SOP.

Virtual full-duplex buffer-aided relay selection schemes for secure cooperative wireless networks

This paper considers secure communication in buffer-aided cooperative wireless networks in the presence of one eavesdropper, which can intercept the data transmission from both the source and relay nodes. It is assumed that the relays employ the randomize-and-forward (RF) strategy such that the eavesdropper can only decode the signals received in the two hops independently. Two cooperative secure transmission schemes, i.e., hybrid imitating full-duplex max-max-ratio relay selection (HyIFD) scheme and threshold-based link selection (TBLS) scheme are proposed for adaptive- and fixed-rate transmissions aiming at improving the secrecy throughput and secrecy outage probability, respectively. For adaptive-rate transmissions (ART), the proposed scheme switches among three sub-strategies according to different conditions such as the number of relays and transmit power. Different relays are chosen for reception and transmission according to the ratio of the legitimate channels to the eavesdropper channels to imitate the full-duplex transmission mode. For fixed-rate transmissions (FRT), a hybrid HD/FD transmission mode is designed to increase the transmission probabilities of two hops under the transmission quality constraint. Two parameters are introduced and optimized to minimize the secrecy outage probability. A sub-optimal TBLS (SO-TBLS) scheme is also given. Theoretical analysis of the secrecy throughput and the secrecy outage probability are provided and the closed-form expressions are derived, and verified by numerical results. It is shown that the proposed schemes outperform benchmark schemes in terms of secrecy throughput and secrecy outage probability.

Trust-aware buffer-aided relay selection for secure communications in cooperative wireless systems

Cooperative wireless networks have been facing security challenges due to the inherent openness of wireless channels. Previous studies on the physical layer security (PLS) of cooperative networks mainly focus on scenarios with only trusted relays. In practice, however, untrusted relays may exist in the network and such relays may refuse to cooperate or even work as a helper of an eavesdropper for packets eavesdropping/interception. To address this issue, we consider in this paper a cooperative wireless network with untrusted relays and a passive eavesdropper attempting to wiretap packets transmitted in the network. To select a secure and trusted relay, we first propose two buffer-aided relay selection schemes, one for perfect eavesdropper channel state information (CSI) case and another for no eavesdropper CSI case. We then conduct theoretical analysis to derive the models for the performance metrics of secrecy outage probability (SOP) and expected queuing delay. Finally, simulation and numerical results are provided for the validation of our theoretical models. The results indicate that our proposed schemes can outperform the typical max-ratio scheme under perfect eavesdropper CSI case and can outperform the max-link and the max-max relay selection schemes under no eavesdropper CSI case in terms of the SOP and expected queuing delay.

Buffer-aided relay selection for secure communication in two-hop wireless networks with limited packet lifetime

Buffer-aided relay selection serves as one of the key approaches for achieving physical layer security (PLS) of wireless networks. Existing studies on buffer-aided relay selection mainly concentrate on the scenarios where transmitted packets have unlimited lifetime, while the more practical and important scenarios with limited packet lifetime remain largely unexplored. This paper therefore aims to study the buffer-aided relay selection for achieving PLS in two-hop wireless networks with limited packet lifetime. We first propose a novel buffer-aided relay selection scheme by carefully considering the remaining lifetimes of packets, conditions of available links and channel state information (CSI) of eavesdroppers. To model the security and reliability performances achieved by the proposed scheme, we then apply tools from the Markov chain theory to derive expressions of the secrecy outage probability (SOP) and the packet discarding probability (PDP) of the network, respectively. Finally, extensive simulation and numerical results are provided to illustrate the performances of our proposed scheme and our theoretical framework. The results show that although our scheme achieves a slightly higher SOP than the typical buffer-aided max-link relay selection scheme, it can greatly reduce the PDP of the network.

Hybrid NOMA/OMA Broadcasting-and-Buffer-State-Based Relay Selection

In this paper, we propose a novel buffer-aided relay selection scheme that is capable of amalgamating the concepts of non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) and orthogonal multiple access (OMA) in the context of two-hop cooperative networks supporting multiple relays. This is enabled by allowing relay nodes to share a common information packet in their buffers with the aid of a source-to-relay broadcasting mode. Hence, the proposed relay selection scheme switches between diverse modes of uplink NOMA, downlink NOMA, unicast, source broadcasting, and cooperative beamforming. The theoretical bounds of the outage probability, throughput, average delay, and diversity order are derived for the proposed scheme, based on a Markov chain model. Through our analytical and numerical results, it is demonstrated that the proposed scheme is capable of switching to one of the best modes in an adaptive manner while outperforming the conventional buffer-aided cooperative schemes.

Relay Selection for Energy-Harvesting Relays With Finite Data Buffer and Energy Storage

Buffer-aided relaying can fully utilize the available selection gain of relay channels by allowing relays to store the received packets in the data buffers when the first-hop and second-hop channels are mismatched in quality. For energy-constrained Internet-of-Things (IoT) networks, some relays may lack sufficient energy to forward the buffered packets even their relay-to-destination channels are strong enough, leading to significant performance loss. This work studies buffer-aided relaying for relays that accumulate the energy harvested from source signal using finite-size energy buffers. A relay selection scheme considering both data buffer and energy buffer status is proposed and its performance is theoretically analyzed through Markov-chain modeling. Due to the complex behavior of dual buffers, the power consumption for reporting buffer status is first ignored in the theoretical analysis, which is then extended to, including feedback energy consumption. We validate the accuracy of the theoretical analysis and extensively discuss the performance of the proposed relay selection scheme subject to numerous key parameters. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed relay selection scheme can fully exploit the diversity gain of multiple relays when ignoring energy consumption of feedback. With nonnegligible feedback energy consumption, the proposed relay selection scheme still significant outperforms some existing buffer-aided relay selection schemes.

Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning-Based Buffer-Aided Relay Selection in IRS-Assisted Secure Cooperative Networks

This paper proposes a multi-agent deep reinforcement learning-based buffer-aided relay selection scheme for an intelligent reflecting surface (IRS)-assisted secure cooperative network in the presence of an eavesdropper. We consider a practical phase model where both phase shift and reflection amplitude are discrete variables to vary the reflection coefficients of the IRS. Furthermore, we introduce the buffer-aided relay to enhance the secrecy performance, but the use of the buffer leads to the cost of delay. Thus, we aim to maximize either the average secrecy rate with a delay constraint or the throughput with both delay and secrecy constraints, by jointly optimizing the buffer-aided relay selection and the IRS reflection coefficients. To obtain the solution of these two optimization problems, we divide each of the problems into two sub-tasks and then develop a distributed multi-agent reinforcement learning scheme for the two cooperative sub-tasks, each relay node represents an agent in the distributed learning. We apply the distributed reinforcement learning scheme to optimize the IRS reflection coefficients, and then utilize an agent on the source to learn the optimal relay selection based on the optimal IRS reflection coefficients in each iteration. Simulation results show that the proposed learning-based scheme uses an iterative approach to learn from the environment for approximating an optimal solution via the exploration of multiple agents, which outperforms the benchmark schemes.

Buffer-State-Based Probabilistic Relay Selection for Cooperative Networks With Delay Constraints

In this letter, a buffer-state-based probabilistic relay selection (RS) scheme is proposed for buffer-aided cooperative relay networks with delay constraints. In particular, we first select the source-to-relay (S2R) and relay-to-destination (R2D) links with the smallest and the largest numbers of packets in the corresponding buffer queues, among all S2R and R2D links whose fading channel gains exceed a predefined threshold, respectively. Then, we utilize the outcome of an auxiliary random variable to decide which one between these two links is selected. Furthermore, the outage probability and average packet delay are analyzed, respectively. In addition, a useful definition of the probability mass function for the auxiliary random variable is proposed to enhance the outage performance under delay constraints. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme significantly outperforms existing buffer-aided RS schemes under different delay constraints.

A Novel Probabilistic Buffer-Aided Relay Selection Scheme in Cooperative Networks

This paper proposes a novel probabilistic buffer-aided (BA) relay selection (RS) scheme for cooperative relay networks. Different from most existing BA RS schemes that are determined by the wireless channel condition and the buffer state, the proposed scheme also utilizes additional randomness to decide the link selection outcome. In particular, we first select the strongest available source-to-relay and relay-to-destination links, respectively, and then probabilistically select one from these two links. Some previously proposed BA RS schemes can be viewed as special cases of the proposed scheme, such as the max-link scheme and the scheme with reduced packet delay. Then, the outage probability and average packet delay are analyzed. Both the analytical and simulation results show that different tradeoffs between the outage probability and average packet delay can be easily achieved by adjusting a single corresponding parameter.

Buffer-aided relay selection for secure two-hop wireless networks with decode-and-forward relays and a diversity-combining eavesdropper

This paper investigates the buffer-aided relay selection issue for achieving physical layer security (PLS) in two-hop wireless networks with Decode-and-Forward (DF) relays. Available works mainly focus on scenarios with independent-decoding eavesdroppers. However, the more hazardous scenarios with diversity-combining eavesdroppers that combine the signals in two hops to decode the packets are largely ignored. This paper considers a two-hop wireless network with multiple DF relays and one diversity-combining eavesdropper under two cases with perfect and partial eavesdropper channel state information (CSI) respectively. We first propose two secure buffer-aided relay selection schemes to suppress the eavesdropper for both eavesdropper CSI cases respectively. We then derive analytical expressions for the end-to-end (E2E) secure transmission probability (STP) and E2E delay of the network. Finally, we provide extensive simulation and numerical results to validate the correctness of the expressions and also to investigate the E2E STP and E2E delay performances. The results showed that the proposed schemes can achieve better E2E STP performance than the well-known Max-ratio buffer-aided relay selection scheme but at the cost of an increased E2E delay.

Buffer-Aided Relay Selection for Cooperative NOMA in the Internet of Things

The nonorthogonal multiple access (NOMA) well improves the spectrum efficiency which is particularly essential in the Internet of Things (IoT) system involving massive number of connections. It has been shown that applying buffers at relays can further increase the throughput in the NOMA relay network. This is however valid only when the channel signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) are large enough to support the NOMA transmission. While it would be straightforward for the cooperative network to switch between the NOMA and the traditional orthogonal multiple access (OMA) transmission modes based on the channel SNR-s, the best potential throughput would not be achieved. In this paper, we propose a novel prioritization-based buffer-aided relay selection scheme which is able to seamlessly combine the NOMA and OMA transmission in the relay network. The analytical expression of average throughput of the proposed scheme is successfully derived. The proposed scheme significantly improves the data throughput at both low and high SNR ranges, making it an attractive scheme for cooperative NOMA in the IoT.

Using Buffers in Trust-Aware Relay Selection Networks With Spatially Random Relays

It is well recognized that using buffers in relay networks significantly improves the transmission reliability, which is often at the price of higher packet delay. Existing buffer-aided relay networks are all based on the physical links among cooperative nodes. This may, however, lead to performance degradation in practice, because those cooperative nodes may not trust each other for cooperation even though their physical connections are strong. In this paper, we propose a novel buffer-aided relay selection scheme to align data transmission with both strong and trusted links. By maintaining the buffer lengths as close as possible to the newly introduced target buffer lengths, the proposed scheme is able to balance the outage performance and packet delay. Both the outage probability and average packet delay are analyzed for spatially random relays. Particularly, we show that the outage performance may have error floors because of the trusts. The analysis shows that using buffers in trust-aware relay networks is able to either increase the diversity order or lower the error floor of the outage probability.

On Security-Delay Trade-Off in Two-Hop Wireless Networks With Buffer-Aided Relay Selection

This paper investigates the security-delay trade-off of the buffer-aided relay selection scheme in a two-hop wireless system, which consists of a source-destination pair, one eavesdropper, and multiple relays each having a finite buffer. To evaluate the security and delay performances of the system, we derive analytical expressions for the end-to-end (E2E) secure transmission probability (STP) and the expected E2E delay under both perfect and partial eavesdropper channel state information (CSI) cases. These analytical expressions help us to explore the inherent trade-off between the security and delay performances of the concerned system. In particular, the results in this paper indicate that: 1) the maximum E2E STP increases as the constraint on the expected E2E delay becomes less strict, and such trend is more sensitive to the variation of the number of relays than that of the relay buffer size; 2) on the other hand, the minimum expected E2E delay tends to decrease when a less strict constraint on E2E STP is imposed, and this trend is more sensitive to the variation of the relay buffer size than that of the number of relays.

Decode-and-Forward Buffer-Aided Relay Selection in Cognitive Relay Networks

This paper investigates decode-and-forward (DF) buffer-aided relay selection for underlay cognitive relay networks (CRNs) in the presence of both primary transmitter and receiver. We propose a novel buffer-aided relay selection scheme for the CRN, where the best relay is selected with the highest signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) among all available source-to-relay and relay-to-destination links while keeping the interference to the primary destination within a certain level. A new closed-form expression for the outage probability of the proposed relay selection scheme is obtained. Both simulation and theoretical results are shown to confirm performance advantage over the conventional max-min relay selection scheme, making the proposed scheme attractive for CRNs.