Performance analysis of amplify-and-forward MIMO-OFDM links with linear ZF equalization

This paper deals with performance analysis of a dual-hop multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) network, which employs multiple amplify-and-forward (AF) nonorthogonal relays and linear zero-forcing (ZF) equalization at the destination. The nonorthogonal AF relaying process introduces correlation between the noise samples at the destination which, along with the non-Gaussian nature of the dual-hop channel and the fact that the relays are located in different positions, significantly complicates the performance analysis of the system. We derive a simple and tight upper bound on the symbol error probability at the destination, which is validated through Monte Carlo simulations.