Buffer-aided 5G cooperative networks: Considering the source delay

© 2019 Association for Computing Machinery. Applying relays employed with data buffers drastically enhance the performance of cooperative networks. However, lengthening the packet delay is still a serious challenge for cooperative networks. This paper thoroughly studies a new factor affecting the packet delay which is the source delay. This factor plays a key role in calculating the total delay that messages encounter before reaching their destination. This delay is crucial especially in applications that require their messages to get transmitted as fast as possible. Markov chain is employed to model the system and analyze the source delay. Numerical simulations verify the analytical model, the results show that buffer-aided relays can beat non-buffer relays in terms of average packet delay, especially at low signal to noise ratio (SNR) range. This makes adding buffers to relays an attractive solution for the packet delay in 5G applications.