Relay Selection and Resource Allocation for SWIPT in Multi-User OFDMA Systems

We investigate the resource allocation and relay selection in a two-hop relay-assisted multi-user Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) network, where the end-nodes support Simultaneous Wireless Information and Power Transfer (SWIPT) employing a Power Splitting (PS) technique. Our goal is to optimize the end-nodes’ power splitting ratios as well as the relay, carrier and power assignment so that the sum-rate of the system is maximized subject to harvested energy and transmitted power constraints. Such joint optimization with mixed integer non-linear programming structure is combinatorial in nature. Due to the complexity of this problem, we propose to solve its dual problem which guarantees asymptotic optimality and less execution time compared to a highly-complex exhaustive search approach. Furthermore, we also present a heuristic method to solve this problem with lower computational complexity. Simulation results reveal that the proposed algorithms provide significant performance gains compared to a semi-random resource allocation and relay selection approach and close to the optimal solution when the number of OFDMA sub-carriers is sufficiently large.