Symbol Error Analysis of Hybrid Satellite–Terrestrial Cooperative Networks With Cochannel Interference

This letter investigates the effect of cochannel interference (CCI) on a hybrid satellite-terrestrial cooperative relay network (HSTCN), where both the satellite-destination and satellite-relay links undergo the shadowed Rician fading, whereas the relay-destination link follows the Rayleigh fading. By assuming that decode-and-forward (DF) protocol is adopted at the terrestrial relay, and the destination is corrupted by multiple CCI, we first derive the analytical expression for the moment generating function (MGF) of the output signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR). Then, based on the Meijer-G functions, we present an approximated yet accurate method to evaluate the average symbol error rate (ASER) of the cooperative network. Moreover, the asymptotic ASER at high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) with respect to diversity order and array gain are also given to gain further insights. Finally, numerical results are provided to demonstrate the validity of the performance analysis as well as the impact of CCI on the HSTCN.