Error Analysis of Fixed-Gain AF Relaying with MRC Over Nakagami-m Fading Channels

Abstract

This article investigates the error performance of wireless communication systems that employ binary modulations and Amplify-and-Forward (AF) relaying over flat Nakagami-m faded links with maximum ratio combining (MRC) at destination. Specifically, we derive a simple yet accurate closed-form approximation for the average bit error probability (ABEP) and closed-form expressions for its tight upper and lower bounds. The effect of power imbalance between the relayed links is also studied. Numerical investigations show good agreement between proposed theoretical results and simulations whereas our performance bounds are shown to be tighter than previously proposed bounds for the case of unbalanced relayed links.

Keywords

• Amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying
• maximal-ratio combining (MRC)
• Nakagami fading
• error analysis