Practical Joint Network-Channel Coding Schemes for Orthogonal Multiple-Access Multiple-Relay Channel

In this paper, we investigate the benefit of Joint Network Channel (JNC) coding and decoding for the slow fading Multiple Access Multiple Relay Channel (MAMRC), defined as follows: (1) Independent sources communicate with a single destination in the presence of multiple relays; (2) Each relay is halfduplex and applies a Selective Decode and Forward (SDF) relaying strategy, i.e, it forwards a deterministic function of the error-free decoded messages; (3) Orthogonal multiple access schemes are used by the sources and the relays; (4) The links between the different nodes of the MAMRC are subject to slow fading and additive white Gaussian noise. This model is referred to as Orthogonal MAMRC (OMAMRC). JNC coding and decoding framework fully exploits the spatial diversity and redundancy residing in both channel codes and network codes. The receivers of the relays and the destination are designed to benefit from the signals of the previously activated relays to better decode the sources. Simulations show the effectiveness of the proposed schemes.