Bit error rate performance analysis in amplify-and-forward relay networks

Two methods are proposed in this paper to estimate asymptotic and exact bit error rate (BER) in two-hop amplify-and-forward (AF) relay networks . Rayleigh-fading channels are considered and selection strategy is used to select the highest end-to-end signal-to-noise ratio relay among all relays. The first presented method unifies the BER analysis performance for both one and two hop networks in one scheme and this refers to as the unified BER (U-BER) . The second method, namely the optimal BER (O-BER), is developed to measure BER for an AF relay network that is optimized with respect to its energy and spectral efficiency. Expressions for asymptotic BER performance for (U-BER) and (O-BER) are derived. An expression for the exact BER for (U-BER) is also obtained. The proposed methods provide useful and efficient tools for analyzing the BER performance in AF relay networks . Analytical and simulated results are compared to validate the BER calculation.