In this thesis distributed relaying systems are considered, where the relays form a virtual antenna array (VAA) and transmit to the destination using distributed space-time block codes (D-STBC). However, the decoding errors at relays severely jeopardize the performance of STBC. One of the solutions is to let only the error-free relays be involved in the VAA to destination transmission while the failed relays keep silent.

In order to further improve the performance, inter-relay cooperation (IRC) is introduced that allows information exchange between the relays. To this end, punctured channel coding schemes, such as rate-compatible punctured convolutional (RCPC) codes and punctured low-denstiy parity-check (PLDPC) codes are used at the source for the sake of IRC design. After local decoding, one of the correctly decoded relays re-generates and broadcasts the punctured bits to the falied relays, where a re-decoding takes place. Consequently, all correct relays (with an inceasing number) participate in the VAA to destination transmission.

One of the focus of this thesis is to investigate the trade-off between the amount  of exchanged punctured bits and the corresponding performance gain. The link quality for IRC is also taken into account, which is of special interests when the relays are not close to each other.

To accomplish the work, the knowledge of 'Channel Coding I+II' is expected. Familiarity with Matlab eases the simulations for performance evaluations.