Slotted ALOHA Based Greedy Relay Selection in Large-scale Wireless Networks

Since the decentralized structure and the blindness of a large-scale wireless network make it difficult to collect the real-time channel state or other information from random distributed relays, a fundamental question is whether it is feasible to perform the relay selection without this knowledge. In this paper, a Slotted ALOHA based Greedy Relay Selection (SAGRS) scheme is presented. The proposed scheme allows the relays satisfying the user's minimum transmission request to compete for selection by randomly accessing the channel through the slotted ALOHA protocol without the need for the information collection procedure. Moreover, a greedy selection mechanism is introduced with which a user can wait for an even better relay when a suitable one is successfully stored. The optimal access probability of a relay is determined through the utilization of the available relay region, a geographical region consisting of all the relays that satisfy the minimum transmission demand of the user. The average number of the selection slots and the failure probability of the scheme are analyzed in this paper. By simulations, the validation and the effectiveness of the SAGRS scheme are confirmed. With a balance between the selection slots and the instantaneous rate of the selected relay, the proposed scheme outperforms other random access selection schemes.