Performance Analysis of Cooperative Diversity Wireless Networks over Nakagami-m Fading Channel

This letter analyzes the performance of cooperative diversity wireless networks using amplify-and-forward relaying over independent, non-identical, Nakagami-m fading channels. The error rate and the outage probability are determined using the moment generating function (MGF) of the total signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) at the destination. Since it is hard to find a closed form for the probability density function (PDF) of the total SNR, we use an approximate value instead. We first derive the PDF and the MGF of the approximate value of the total SNR. Then, the MGF is used to determine the error rate and the outage probability. We also use simulation to verify the analytical results. Results show that the derived error rate and outage probability are tight lower bounds particularly at medium and high SNR