Transmission for half-duplex relay in fading channel and rateless code configuration

1. A method for transmission in a wireless communication system comprising the steps of:

selecting by a signal destination one of a source-destination direct transmission, a decode-forward relay transmission, and a compress-forward transmission, responsive to channel gains between a signal source and a relay, between said signal source and said signal destination, and between said relay and said signal destination;

informing a selected transmission mode from said selecting step to said signal source and said relay; and

operating in said selected transmission mode by said relay;

wherein said selecting step comprises said signal destination broadcasting a feedback after receiving an optimum number of symbols required by said relay before said broadcasting, said feedback signal being heard by said relay link, said signal source and including information for selecting one of said decode-forward and said compress-forward transmission; and

wherein said optimum number of symbols the relay should receive before it starts transmitting being sent as additional feedback responsive to a transmission delay consideration in said selecting step, said feedback signal and said additional feedback being sent anytime before beginning of said optimum number of symbols at the beginning of a transmission block.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said compress forward transmission comprises said relay quantizing a received signal W using a quantizer and then joint source-channel codes, the quantized sequence using a Raptor code of a first degree distribution.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein said compress-forward transmission further comprises said relay starting to transmit coded modulated symbols using power P r , while at the same time, said signal source starting to use a Raptor code of a second degree distribution and transmitting said modulated symbols using an adjusted power.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein said compress-forward transmission further comprises transmission from said source and said relay being over a multiple-access channel and received as Y d2 at said signal destination, a power and adjusted power being fixed for optimizing average throughput.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein said compress-forward transmission further comprises said signal destination first attempting to recover a quantized sequence W by treating transmission from said signal source as interference.