Outage probability analysis for superposition coded symmetric relaying

Superposition coded symmetric relaying is a bandwidth-efficient cooperative scheme where each source node simultaneously transmits both its own "local" packet and "relay" packet that originated at its partner by adding the modulated local and relay signals in Euclidean space. This paper investigates the power allocation and outage probability of a superposition coded symmetric relaying system with finite-constellation signaling. We first derive the mutual information (MI) metrics for the system. The derived MI metrics consist of two parts: one represents the MI conveyed by the modulated signal corresponding to its own data, and the other represents the MI conveyed by the modulated signal corresponding to its partner's data. Using MI based effective signal-to-noise ratio mapping technique, we attain expressions for the outage probability. Furthermore, we discuss power allocation policies that minimize the outage probability. Simulation results are presented to verify the correctness of the outage probability analysis and the benefits of the power allocation.