Optimal time allocation for RF-powered DF relay-assisted cooperative communication

A decode-and-forward (DF) relay-assisted RF-powered cooperative communication between an RF energy harvesting source and an information sink is considered. DF relay aids the communication between these two distant wireless nodes by (i) RF energy transfer to the source, and (ii) relaying source data to the sink. To enable efficient RF-powered delay-constrained information transfer to the sink under Rayleigh fading, joint global-optimal time allocations for information and energy transfer are derived. Impact of relay position on throughput and optimality of the analytical solutions are numerically investigated.