Performance analysis of best relay selection scheme for fixed gain cooperative networks in non-identical Nakagami-m channels

Selecting the best relay among all the relays ready to cooperate saves system resources and utilizes the available bandwidth more efficiently compared to the regular all-relay cooperation. This scheme also achieves the same or better system performance in terms of outage probability and diversity order. In this paper, we analyze the performance of the best relay selection scheme with fixed gain relays operating in non-identical Nakagami-m fading channels. We first derive the probability density function (pdf) using an upper bounded end-to-end signal to noise ratio (SNR) for the relay link. Using this pdf, we derive some key performance parameters for the system. The analytical results presented are verified through simulations. The results show that the best relay selection scheme outperforms the regular cooperation.