Exact analysis of maximal ratio transmission-based decode-and-forward relaying with arbitrary number of co-channel interferers

Abstract

This paper analyzes the performance of maximal ratio transmission (MRT)-based cooperative communication system over Nakagami-m fading channels in the existence of co-channel interference which is becoming a critical factor since the limited spectrum bands are shared by growing number of devices. In particular, a dual-hop decode-and-forward relaying is investigated when multiple interferers affect the relay and the destination nodes. Firstly, the cumulative distribution function (CDF) and the probability density function (PDF) of the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) are derived. Then, the exact expressions for the outage probability (OP), average bit error probability (ABEP), and ergodic capacity are obtained. Furthermore, asymptotic expressions for OP and ABEP are provided to find the diversity and coding gains. Finally, simulation results are presented to validate our theoretical findings.