Before revision:  Given fixed power allocation to the OFDM subcarriers, we observe that a sorted-SNR subcarrier pairing strategy is data-rate optimal, where each relay pairs its incoming and outgoing subcarriers by their SNR order.
After revision:  Given fixed power allocation to the channels, we show that channel pairing over multiple hops can be decomposed into independent pairing problems at each relay, and a sorted-SNR subcarrier pairing strategy is data-rate optimal, where each relay pairs its incoming and outgoing subcarriers by their SNR order.