MIMO AF semi-blind relay networks with OSTBC transmission over Nakagami-m fading

In this paper, we investigate the end-to-end performance of dual-hop multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) amplify-and-forward (AF) semi-blind relay networks with orthogonal space-time block coding (OSTBC) transmission over mutually independent, non-identically distributed (i.n.i.d.) Nakagami-m fading channels. Our analysis considers a semi-blind relay equipped with a single antenna, and a multiple-antenna source and destination. We first derive a closed-form expression for the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of the instantaneous signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Utilizing this CDF, closed-form expressions for the outage probability (OP) and the symbol error rate (SER) of the considered relay networks are derived. Furthermore, a closed-form approximation expression for the ergodic capacity is presented along with a respective asymptotic formula. Numerical results are given to verify our analysis through representative examples. In particular, the approximation curves are in very close agreement with the Monte Carlo simulations. In the high SNR regime, the asymptotic curves tightly converge to the approximation and simulations.