On the Capacity of the Half-Duplex Diamond Channel

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the capacity of a half-duplex diamond channel with two relays, proposing strategies that approach the channel's capacity within a few bits by considering different channel parameters and transmission modes.

Contribution

It introduces new bounds and strategies for the diamond channel, showing how to nearly achieve capacity by combining relaying, broadcast, and multiple access modes based on channel parameters.

Findings

Successive relaying achieves capacity when =0.

Enhanced strategies improve rates within 3.6 bits of capacity.

Different modes are optimal depending on the channel parameter .

Abstract

In this paper, a dual-hop communication system composed of a source S and a destination D connected through two non-interfering half-duplex relays, R1 and R2, is considered. In the literature of Information Theory, this configuration is known as the diamond channel. In this setup, four transmission modes are present, namely: 1) S transmits, and R1 and R2 listen (broadcast mode), 2) S transmits, R1 listens, and simultaneously, R2 transmits and D listens. 3) S transmits, R2 listens, and simultaneously, R1 transmits and D listens. 4) R1, R2 transmit, and D listens (multiple-access mode). Assuming a constant power constraint for all transmitters, a parameter $\Delta$ is defined, which captures some important features of the channel. It is proven that for $\Delta$=0 the capacity of the channel can be attained by successive relaying, i.e, using modes 2 and 3 defined above in a successive manner. This strategy may have an infinite gap from the capacity of the channel when $\Delta\neq$0. To achieve rates as close as 0.71 bits to the capacity, it is shown that the cases of $\Delta$>0 and $\Delta$<0 should be treated differently. Using new upper bounds based on the dual problem of the linear program associated with the cut-set bounds, it is proven that the successive relaying strategy needs to be enhanced by an additional broadcast mode (mode 1), or multiple access mode (mode 4), for the cases of $\Delta$<0 and $\Delta$>0, respectively. Furthermore, it is established that under average power constraints the aforementioned strategies achieve rates as close as 3.6 bits to the capacity of the channel.