Joint cooperation diversity and symbol mapping diversity in cooperative communication systems

In this paper, we investigate joint cooperation diversity and symbol mapping diversity strategies for cooperative communication systems that employ nonbinary linear modulations such as phase-shift keying (PSK) and quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM). Substantial symbol error rate gains results from designing different symbol mappings for each packet transmission (symbol mapping diversity) and delivering them through independent paths to the final destination (cooperation diversity). These joint diversity schemes can provide substantial symbol error rate gains with only a small increase in receiver complexity and combat the effects of fading induced by multipath propagation effectively.