Performance analysis of decode-and-forward relaying with partial relay selection for multihop transmission over Rayleigh fading channels

Multihop transmission is a promising technique that helps in achieving broader coverage (excellent network connectivity) and preventing the impairment of wireless channels. This paper proposes a cluster-based multihop wireless network that makes use of the advantages of multihop relaying, i.e., path loss gain, and partial relay selection in each hop, i.e., spatial diversity. In this partial relay selection, the node with the maximum instantaneous channel gain will serve as the sender for the next hop. With the proposed protocol, the transmit power and spectral efficiency can be improved over those in the case of direct transmission and conventional multihop transmission. Moreover, at a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), the performance of the system with at least two nodes in each cluster is dependent only on the last hop and not on any of the intermediate hops. For a practically feasible decode-and-forward relay strategy, a compact expression for the probability density function of the end-to-end SNR at the destination is derived. This expression is then used to derive closed-form expressions for the outage probability, average symbol error rate, and average bit error rate for M-ary square quadrature amplitude modulation as well as to determine the spectral efficiency of the system. In addition, the probability of SNR gain over direct transmission is investigated for different environments. The mathematical analysis is verified by various simulation results for demonstrating the accuracy of the theoretical approach.