Rateless Coding for Wireless Relay Channels

Abstract

We propose a novel coding framework for wireless relay channels based on rateless codes, which allows for a natural extension to multiple antenna and multiple relay settings. The relaying protocol is half-duplex, and relays independently choose when to collaborate, if at all. With a simulated fountain code based implementation of this framework, we show that the use of rateless codes is both robust and efficient when the channel state information is not available at the transmitters