Performance of a dual-hop multi-relay cooperative network in a Nakagami-m fading environment

An exact average symbol error rate analysis for the distributed dual-hop relay cooperative network with multiple relays in a Nakagami-m fading environment is presented. In the derivation of the moment generation function of receiver Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), the sectional integral method is used, instead of the cumulative density function method which is ordinarily used by the deduction of the outage probability of S-R-D link The accurate symbol error rate of a dual-hop relay cooperative network is obtained with the closed-form Moment Genoration Function (MGF) expression. The correctness of the symbol error rate is verified through numerical simulations and is compared with other analytical methods. These deductions clearly show that the distributed cooperative diversity network presented has strong superiorities in overcoming severe fading and can achieve full diversity order.