Impact of Fading Channel to Energy Harvesting Relay on Cooperative Communication Systems

Channel conditions strongly influence the performance of the wireless communication system. Fading is one of the main problems caused by signal propagation via various paths. Recently, cooperative communication systems have been extensively studied to overcome this problem. However, the power consumption in the system relaying information to the destination increases, shortening the network's life. Therefore, this paper analyzes the impact of three Raleigh and Rician fading channel scenarios on cooperative communication performance in which a relay uses energy harvesting based on power splitting (EH-PS). The three scenarios are Rayleigh-Rayleigh fading (I), Rician- Rayleigh fading (II), and Rician-Rician fading (III). Subsequently, the throughput performance and energy efficiency are evaluated based on the maximum power splitting (PS) ratio. The simulation results indicate that the PS ratio in scenario III is higher than in scenarios I and II. Thus, the Rician fading channel can accumulate more energy in the relay due to the line-of-sight path between the source and the relay. Hence, scenario III's throughput and energy efficiency are higher than the other scenarios. The energy efficiency for scenario III is 33.08% and 12.14% higher than scenarios I and II, respectively. Therefore, the EH-PS cooperative communication system with the Rician fading channels has the highest throughput and is promising for future 5G technology.