Exact BER Analysis of Threshold-Based Amplify-and-Forward Relaying over Rayleigh Fading Channels

Dae-Hwan KIM  Young-Hwan YOU  We-Duke CHO 

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Communications  Vol.E95-B  No.6  pp.2148-2152
Publication Date: 2012/06/01
Online ISSN: 1745-1345
Print ISSN: 0916-8516
Type of Manuscript: LETTER
Category: Wireless Communication Technologies
Keyword: 
amplify-and-forward (AF) protocol,  bit-error rate (BER),  threshold-based relaying, 

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Summary: 
We study threshold-based relaying in an amplify-and-forward (AF) cooperative diversity network. For the network, the relay helps the communication from the source to the destination only if the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the link from the source to the relay is greater than or equal to a pre-determined threshold value; otherwise, the relay remains silent. We derive the exact bit-error rate (BER) of the threshold-based relaying for M-pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) and M-quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM). The obtained BER expression can help the design of the threshold-based relaying in determining the system parameters such as the transmission power, the amplifying coefficient at the relay, and the pre-determined threshold value.