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In wireless relay networks, noise at the relays can be correlated possibly due to common interference or noise propagation from preceding hops. A parallel relay network with noise correlation is considered in this network. For the relay strategy of amplify and forward (AF), the optimal rate maximizing relay gains when correlation knowledge is available at the relays are determined. Interestingly, it is shown that, on average, noise correlation is beneficial regardless of whether the relays know the noise covariance matrix. However, the knowledge of correlation can greatly improve the performance. Typically, the performance improvement from correlation knowledge increases with the relay power and the number of relays. With perfect correlation knowledge the system is capable of canceling interference if the number of interferers is less than the number of relays. For a two-hop multiple-access parallel network, closed-form expressions for the maximum sum rate and the optimal relay strategy are determined. Relay optimization for networks with three hops is also considered. Based on the result of two-hop network with noise correlation, an iterative algorithm is proposed for solving the relay optimization problem for three-hop networks. Index Terms--Amplify and forward (AF), common interference, multiple hop, noise correlation, parallel relay network, relay optimization.

In this paper, we consider multihop multiple access (MAC) and broadcast channels (BC) where communication takes place with the assistance of relays that amplify and forward (AF) their received signals. For a two-hop parallel AF relay MAC, assuming a sum power constraint across all relays we characterize optimal relay amplification factors and the resulting optimal rate regions. We find the maximum sum rate and the maximum rate for each user in closed form and express the optimal rate pair ([R.sub.1], [R.sub.2]) that maximizes [[micro].sub.1] R.sub.1] + [[micro].sub.2] [R.sub.2] as the solution of a pair of simultaneous equations. We find that the parallel AF relay MAC with total transmit power of the two users [P.sub.1] + [P.sub.2] = P and total relay power [P.sub.R] is the dual of the parallel AF relay BC where the MAC source nodes become the BC destination nodes, the MAC destination node becomes the BC source node, the dual BC source transmit power is [P.sub.R] and the total transmit power of the AF relays is P. The duality means that the rate region of the AF relay MAC with a sum power constraint P on the transmitters is the same as that of the dual BC. The duality relationship is found to be useful in characterizing the rate region of the AF relay BC as the union of MAC rate regions. The duality is established for distributed multiple antenna AF relay nodes and multiple (more than 2) hops as well. Index Terms--Amplify-and-forward (AF), broadcast, capacity, duality, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), multiple access.

We investigate the performance degradation of basic modulation schemes in a rapidly time-varying channel using a first-order autoregressive channel model. Various performance metrics are used to indicate the relative advantages of each modulation scheme. We find that noncoherent frequency-shift keying (FSK) is suitable for operating at very high mobility and high signal-to-noise ratio, ideal for some military applications. We then propose a partially coherent detector for FSK and differential phase-shift keying that exploits partial channel knowledge to enable the receiver to operate effectively in both fast and slow fading. The maximum-likelihood rule obtained for the partially coherent FSK turns out to be a linear combination of coherent and noncoherent detection rules. Results demonstrate that significant performance improvement can be achieved over the best of coherent and noncoherent FSK detection. The detector is robust to estimation errors present in the channel statistics. We also propose a few adaptive schemes that employ various combinations of modulation schemes to increase the robustness of the system in fast fading. Index Terms--Fast fading, interblock adaptation, intrablock adaptation, partially coherent detection, rapidly time-varying channel.