On the Optimality of the ARQ-DDF Protocol
  The performance of the automatic repeat request-dynamic decode and forward (ARQ-DDF) cooperation protocol is analyzed in two distinct scenarios. The first scenario is the multiple access relay (MAR) channel where a single relay is dedicated to simultaneously help several multiple access users. For this setup, it is shown that the ARQ-DDF protocol achieves the optimal diversity multiplexing tradeoff (DMT) of the channel. The second scenario is the cooperative vector multiple access (CVMA) channel where the users cooperate in delivering their messages to a destination equipped with multiple receiving antennas. For this setup, we develop a new variant of the ARQ-DDF protocol where the users are purposefully instructed not to cooperate in the first round of transmission. Lower and upper bounds on the achievable DMT are then derived. These bounds are shown to converge to the optimal tradeoff as the number of transmission rounds increases. 
Kambiz Azarian, Hesham El Gamal and Philip Schniter