Performance analysis of cooperative relay networks over asymmetric fading channels

The performance of a cooperative dual-hop amplify-and-forward relay network over Rayleigh-Rician asymmetric fading channels is investigated. Specifically, the moment generating function of the output signal-to-noise ratio is first derived. Based on this, approximate yet accurate expressions of the analytical and asymptotic average symbol error rates for the cooperative network are then presented. Finally, numerical simulations are given to confirm the validity of the analytical results.