Efficient Transmission in Multi-user Relay Networks with Node Clustering and Network Coding

This paper investigates the communication problem in a class of multi-user dual-hop networks in which multiple source terminals desire to distribute their independent messages to multiple destinations through the assistance of multiple relay terminals. We consider an efficient transmission strategy that combines network coding and non-orthogonal transmission techniques to balance the achievability of spatial diversity and channel utilization. Specifically, in addition to applying a class of finite-field network codes in the relays, we divide the sources and the relays into clusters such that terminals within each cluster can access the same channel resource. The achievable error performance under Nakagami-m fading environment is derived and is shown to significantly outperform the conventional transmission methods.